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ERCAIAD - Regional School for Anti-drug Intelligence of the American Community
Paul Simons, former CICAD Executive Secretary, exchanges signed agreements with then Chief of the National Police of Colombia, General Oscar Naranjo, March 28, 2012, Bogota.
ERCAIAD, (Escuela Regional de la Comunidad Americana de Inteligencia Antidrogas) previously known as the Andean Regional Counterdrug Intelligence School, is a specialized center for academic and operational training in the anti-drug intelligence field. At its founding in 1999, participants came primarily from the ranks of police, intelligence and other institutions involved in fighting drug trafficking in the original Andean Intelligence Group countries (Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela). Participation has since been expanded to include other Latin American and Caribbean countries. In this way, the school now responds to the broader needs of all Spanish-speaking CICAD member states.
The name of the school changed to the American Community Regional Counterdrug Intelligence School in 2011 and retained the ERCAIAD Spanish acronym. Training seminars take two approaches: three or four-week intensives on strategic and operational intelligence and week-long workshops held in selected countries focused on specialized issues. Training modules are delivered by internationally recognized experts, coming from Canada, the United States, France and Spain as well as from the participating member states themselves, and international organizations, such as Interpol and UNODC.
More than 2,500 counterdrug law enforcement officers have attended training seminars at ERCAIAD over its 19 years.
The school shifted its headquarters to Bogota, after a decade in Peru. The school's Multinational Executive Board includes representatives from the six original Andean Intelligence Group member countries and OAS/CICAD’s Executive Secretariat.
In March 2012, the OAS and the Government of Colombia signed an agreement that established collaboration in the fields of specialized training, technical assistance and scientific research.
Among the courses to be offered are:
- Intelligence applied to the technical control of objects and the use of new technologies,
- Intelligence applied to the fight against drugs (basic intelligence and strategic analysis),
- Advanced intelligence operations (financial intelligence and illicit capital investments),
- Anti-drug intelligence applied to maritime ports and airports,
- Anti-drug intelligence applied to civil aviation and aircraft,
- Intelligence for the identification and characterization of production infrastructure for illicit drugs and the control of chemical substances, and
- Prospective analysis of the phenomenon of drugs and psychoactive substances: impact and scope in the region
The ERCAIAD model led Caribbean member state to request a similar institution
be created for the English-speaking Caribbean. The Regional Counterdrug
Intelligence Training School – RCITS -
was
officially launched in November 2015 as a joint initiative of CICAD and
Trinidad and Tobago
government
for the Caribbean region, with financial support from the Government of Canada
and under the operational management of the National Police Academy of Trinidad
and Tobago. The RCITS aims to provide specialized training to Caribbean
counterdrug intelligence officers in the various agencies in charge of drug
control.
In 2005, ERCAIAD underwent an independent evaluation.
updated on 3/6/2018 6:52:33 PM
