DUSHANBE, June 21, 2013, Asia-Plus – On June 21, twenty-five officers from the Tajik border troops and national customs service completed a two-week training course on combating transborder organized crime organized by the OSCE Office in Tajikistan.

According to the OSCE office, the graduates, all operational managers in their respective agencies, received instruction on financial and economic crimes and investigations, money laundering, identification and combating techniques on drugs, illegal migration and people smuggling and forged document identification. 

Alastair Livingston, Head of the Political Military Department at the OSCE Office in Tajikistan congratulated the graduates and said: "Expanding the skills of Tajik border and law enforcement officers to deal with increasing transborder organized crime, and thus enhancing the national border management strategy, is a key to strengthening border security in upcoming years and is a priority for both national agencies and the international community."

The course was conducted as part of the OSCE’s border security program, focusing on capacity-building for national border security and management agencies, and was supported through the provision of experts by the Turkish International Cooperation and Coordination Agency in Tajikistan.