India, US review bilateral counter-narcotics cooperation amid joint crackdown

The top officials of India’s Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and the United States Office of National Drug Control Policy (ON DCP) met in New Delhi on November 2 and 3 to strengthen bilateral counter-narcotics cooperation, joint intelligence sharing, and coordinated action.

The Indian delegation was led by NCB director general Anurag Garg and the US delegation was headed by ONDCP's acting deputy director Debbie Seguin. (Representational/Reuters)The meeting was held against the backdrop of Indian and US drug law enforcement agencies conducting joint crackdowns in India and the US to bust members of the same cartel operating in the two countries and across different continents.

NCB and the US White House issued separate press statements on Tuesday confirming the development. The Indian delegation was led by NCB director general Anurag Garg and the US delegation was headed by ONDCP's acting deputy director Debbie Seguin.

Garg spoke about India outlining a three-year roadmap that sets out a comprehensive strategy to combat the illicit narcotics trade, emphasising network-centric investigations, precursor control, financial investigations, prevention, and rehabilitation.

According to the NCB statement, the delegations discussed current drug trafficking trends and emerging threats. They welcomed joint and national initiatives at the operational and regulatory levels, including Operation MedMax, Operation WIPE, and India's Voluntary Code of Conduct to prevent the diversion of precursor chemicals used to make synthetic drugs.

“The meeting underscored the importance of sustained institutional engagement, timely intelligence exchange, and coordinated action to address emerging narcotics threats and promote demand reduction. Both sides agreed to further sharing of best practices in targeted law enforcement topics,” the statements said.

ONDCP director Sara Carter said in a statement that the US-India bilateral cooperation was vital to disrupting transnational drug trafficking networks. “The Executive Working Group and bilateral cooperation between the United States and India are vital to disrupting transnational drug trafficking networks and preventing the diversion of synthetic drugs and chemical precursors into global markets,” she said.

The US Drug Czar elaborated further about the sophisticated multinational logistics enterprises. “To defeat an adversary built like a global business, our strategy must be equally targeted: we must partner across borders to secure the commercial supply chains they exploit,” the NCB and the White House quoted director Carter as saying.