Tackling Latin American organized crime through a global lens
Although typically known for drug trafficking, Latin American and Caribbean organized crime groups have diversified to more global crime, including arms smuggling, human trafficking and financial crime.
Project Fortaleza provides police forces with the global, neutral platform they need to detect, track, and fight criminal activity.
While the project focuses on the Americas region, countries from West Africa, Europe and Asia regularly participate in Fortaleza activities, as they are also impacted as source, transit or destination countries.
Some of the products developed by INTERPOL include:
- Gang watch lists;
- Intelligence officer networks;
- Regionally coordinated police operations;
- Access to our wide range of criminal databases and expertise.
This approach ensures law enforcement can address national and regional challenges by acting globally.
Enhancing international police cooperation
In addition to nurturing a strong regional law enforcement network, Fortaleza holds annual operational meetings to share experiences, identify best practices and innovate on new law enforcement methods.
Through Project Fortaleza, we boost communication between our General Secretariat, member countries and officers in the field. This leads to more efficient exchange of operational and actionable police intelligence.
