Credit: Interpol.int /  Red Notice fugitive Sylwia Sulecka was wanted by Polish authorities on drug trafficking charges. She was identified via INTERPOL’s facial recognition biometric service as part of investigations coordinated by INTERPOL’s Fugitive Investigative Support unit.

By Gary Raynaldo   DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

Federal Police in Buenos Aires have arrested an internationally wanted drug trafficking suspect following an investigation coordinated by the International Criminal Police Organization’s Fugitive Investigative Support unit, INTERPOL reported Wednesday.  Sylwia Sulecka, a Polish national aged 41, was wanted by Polish authorities under an INTERPOL Red Notice published in 2011. The case had remained open after originally being part of INTERPOL’s Operation INFRA South America in 2011, targeting fugitives on the continent.  She was identified after new images of the suspect submitted by the INTERPOL National Central Bureaus in Buenos Aires and Warsaw were compared against records in INTERPOL’s facial recognition database, according to INTERPOL.  After the image comparison produced a match, the Fugitive Investigation Division of Argentina’s Federal Police detained the suspect for further questioning, resulting in the fugitive confirming her true identity. Evidence uncovered by the international investigation showed the 41-year-old had adopted a new identity in Bolivia before settling in Argentina.  Authorities in Argentina are now holding the suspect subject to her extradition to Poland.

“INTERPOL’s global police cooperation platform helped locate, identify and arrest an international fugitive who had evaded justice for years. “This clearly demonstrates the fundamental role of INTERPOL as a global ‘tripwire’ in international investigations. We need to keep ensuring that vital information moves faster than fugitives,” 

INTERPOL Secretary General Jürgen Stock.

INTERPOL Urges More International sharing Of Biometric Data To Fight Crime And Terror

Credit: SAFRAN / Safran Identity & Security (IDEMIA) is the exclusive partner of INTERPOL for facial recognition.

Launched in November 2016, INTERPOL’s facial recognition biometric service contains more than 52,000 images from 179 countries. Police forces across the globe use INTERPOL’s facial recognition capability daily to make connections between criminals and crime scenes, identify fugitives and missing persons or to compare mugshots.

Biometric data on terrorists needed to activate global tripwire:  INTERPOL 

In addition to combating transnational organized crime, biometric data is also growing in use by INTERPOL to fight terror. To that end, INTERPOL stresses that  biometric data on terrorists is needed to activate “global tripwire.”

Credit: Interpol.int  /  INTERPOL Secretary General Jürgen Stock.

Interpol Secretary Stock has stated that information sharing is a “tripwire” against foreign terrorist fighters. The Interpol Secretary General contends that information sharing and intelligence analysis “represent strong tripwires at the frontlines against foreign terrorist fighters.”

INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL POLICE ORGANIZATION (INTERPOL)   RED NOTICE 

Circulated to 194 INTERPOL member countries, the Red Notice represents one of INTERPOL’s most powerful tools in tracking international fugitives. Containing identification details and judicial information on a wanted person, INTERPOL Red Notices communicate to police worldwide that a person is wanted by a member country and request that the suspect be placed under provisional arrest pending extradition.