During the recently held International Conference ‘Networking the Networks’ in national capital, delegates from India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Myanmar discussed threadbare the modalities for creation of a regional platform to be called ‘South Asian Regional Intelligence and Coordination Centre on Transnational Organized Crime’ (SARICC-TOC), for information/intelligence sharing to enable all Member States to respond Transnational organized crimes. The SARICC meeting concluded with representatives of the proposed SARICC-TOC, namely, India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Myanmar and finalized the draft structure and Terms of reference of SARICC-TOC. This is all the more relevant since the South Asia region lacks such regional coordination mechanism on the lines of Central Asian Regional Information and Coordination Centre (CARICC) or Asia-Pacific Information & Coordination Center for Combating Drug Crimes (APICC) to facilitate criminal intelligence sharing and operational coordination related to organized crime, including illicit drug trafficking and related activities such as precursor trafficking and money laundering.

 Earlier, Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India hosted a 3-day International Meet ‘Networking the Networks’ from 2nd – 4th November 2-4, 2015 in the national capital. The theme of the meeting was ‘Countering illicit financial flows originating from organized crime’. The United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) provided technical assistance for the meeting. The Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley inaugurated the ‘Networking the Networks’ Conference on 2^nd November, 2015.

 Three Day International Meet identified the best practices of the existing international organizations and regional platforms for fast cooperation on illicit financial flows and capacity building. These practices cover a wide range of issues, such as, organization and setup of regional networks, connection between various networks, new methodologies to disrupt illicit financial flows, capacity building, use of IT tools, international and interagency cooperation.

 Various international/regional organizations/networks, such as United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Vienna, UNODC Regional Office for South Asia (ROSA), UNODC Regional Office for Central Asia (ROCA), World Customs Organization (WCO), Brussels, Central Asian Regional Information and Coordination Centre (CARICC), Asia-Pacific Information & Coordination Center for Combating Drug Crimes (APICC) participated in the 3 day meeting. Besides these international organizations, law enforcement officials and Financial Intelligence Units (FIU) from a number of countries, including Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Myanmar, Malaysia, Nepal, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and United States of America participated in the meeting. From India, officials of Department of Revenue, Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC), Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Enforcement Directorate (ED), Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) India, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Intelligence Bureau, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Central Bureau of Narcotics (CBN), Central Economic Intelligence Bureau (CEIB), National Academy of Customs, Excise & Narcotics (NACEN), Reserve Bank of India, National Investigation agency (NIA), Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) participated in the meeting among others.

Regional intelligence sharing to coordinate responses to transnational organized crime and curb illicit financial flows. The draft structure and Terms of reference of the South Asian Regional Intelligence and Coordination Centre on Transnational Organized Crime (SARICC-TOC) were finalized to create a regional platform for information/intelligence sharing and operational coordination against organized crime, including illicit drug trafficking, precursor trafficking and money laundering. The draft was shaped during an international meeting focused on countering illicit financial flows, which identified best practices for regional network setup, connectivity, IT tools, capacity building and interagency cooperation, with participation from law enforcement, financial intelligence units and international organizations.