WEDNESDAY, 1.00PM
THE United Staes government has sent representatives of four federal law enforcement agencies to SA in a bid to improve co-operation in the fight against international crime syndicates and to help in local police training programmes.
The four agents represent the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the US Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalisation Service, and will be attached to the US embassy in Pretoria. They will work with local police, home affairs officials and the revenue service to investigate money laundering, drug trafficking, smuggling, gunrunning and trafficking in endangered species and illegal aliens.
They will be involved in training local police, planning a local detectives’ academy, and identifying local candidates for leadership courses in the US.
The posting of the agents to Pretoria follows the signing by Deputy President Thabo Mbeki and US Vice-President Al Gore of a memorandum of understanding on law enforcement co-operation last year.