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Covenant Information and Expertise Center ratified on Bonaire

KRALENDIJK- Island Governor Rijna and Minister of Justice and Security Yesiloz-Segerius symbolically cut the ribbon of the signing. Photo: OLB

KRALENDIJK – In the presence of the Minister of Justice and Security Yesilgoz-Zegerius, the signing of the Covenant RIEC CN (Regional Information and Expertise Centre for the Caribbean Netherlands) is a fact with the symbolic cutting of the ribbon.

RIEC CN is a collaboration of security partners to gain more insight into the manifestations of organized and subversive crime in the Caribbean Netherlands. It is an integrated, but certainly also monodisciplinary, approach to subversive crime that contributes to a safer Caribbean Netherlands. It is a structural collaboration of a number of partners, namely the public entities Bonaire, St. Eustatius, Saba, the Public Prosecution Service BES, KPCN, KMar, Belastingdienst/Customs CN, SZW, IND, FIU and De Kustwacht. The LIEC (National Information and Expertise Center in the European Netherlands) offers support in certain areas. The Ministry of Justice and Security supports these ambitions and has, among other things, awarded a financial contribution.

RIEC CN’s priorities are tackling real estate crime, human trafficking/smuggling, airport & seaport crime and subversive crime in the hospitality industry. So that the problem of Organized Subversive Crime (GOC), which also occurs within the Caribbean Netherlands and manifests itself more visibly in everyday life, can be tackled. Such as drugs often originating from South America, the laundering of criminally obtained assets, including in real estate and catering, the harrowing forms of human trafficking in the forms of sexual and labor exploitation and criminal organizations that sometimes abuse permits and subsidies and thus provide an intertwining between the underworld and the upperworld. These types of crime also occur within the Caribbean Netherlands.

Scope

The extent of subversive crime within the Caribbean Netherlands is still insufficiently known. In their annual overview of 2021, FIU-the Netherlands did announce that there were 2257 unusual transactions within the Caribbean Netherlands in that year, of which 209 were declared suspicious with a value of approximately 38 million euros.

From 2017 to 2021, the value of suspicious transactions is even more than 130 million euros. Compared to the number of suspicious transactions in the European Netherlands in the year 2021, this may seem small, but for the Caribbean Netherlands these are considerable amounts and for which one cannot close one’s eyes.

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