Project ‘Amaan’ covers over 250 global sources to fight narcotics & money laundering: Senate body told

Last updated on: 03 October,2019 07:11 pm

Shehryar said project would enable Pakistan to identify illegal transferred money in drug trade.

ISLAMABAD (APP) – The Senate Standing Committee on Narcotics Control on Thursday was apprised that Project  Amaan  had covered over 250 accredited sources of information across the globe to effectively fight narcotics and money laundering.

Highlighting key features of world s largest Artificial Intelligence-driven database, Minister for Narcotics Control Shehryar Khan Afridi informed the panel that different law enforcement agencies across the globe had shown their interest in purchasing the data, including ex secretary-general of Interpol.

He said: "Serious discussion with UAE Interpol is also underway to use our data for identifying some of the criminals that had passed through their immigration process", he informed the Senate body which met here with Sardar Muhammad Shafiq Tareen in the chair.

Shehryar said the project would fully enable Pakistan to identify the illegal transferred money in the drug trade.

"The data is updated in less than 10 minutes while some new features of the project like facial recognition and smart search are underway," he added.

The minister said it was the landmark achievement that had made Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) one of the most effective forces in the region. He said the intelligence from this solution would also be shared with other law-enforcement agencies and other stakeholders.

Apprising the panel, Secretary, Ministry of Narcotics Control, Amjad Javed Saleemi said a team of database experts was working regularly to collect, normalize and validate the data from the sources to ensure the efficacy of the solution.

To curb the illicit drugs trade, he said it was country s first data-bank on individuals and organizations, reportedly involved in crimes related to narcotics and money-laundering.

"Over 200 global government agencies are being monitored under the project. Besides it has tagged more than 100 drugs and 20 pluschemicals that were involved in the production of narcotics", he added.