Andorra highlights scam centres and intelligence sharing at Interpol assembly

The director of Andorra’s police department, Bruno Lasne, and the head of the National Central Bureau, Sergeant Major Francesc Almendros, represented the country at Interpol’s 93rd General Assembly in Marrakech, Morocco. The four‑day meeting brought together more than 800 delegates from 179 countries, including 82 police chiefs, to address evolving threats from organised and transnational crime and to strengthen multilateral cooperation.

A central topic was the proliferation of transnational scam centres: organised networks that recruit victims with false job offers, detain and exploit them, and force them to carry out large‑scale frauds such as phishing, romance scams, sextortion and bogus cryptocurrency investments. Delegates underlined that these operations are frequently linked to human trafficking and other forms of exploitation, and noted that victims from Andorra have been affected in recent years.

Interpol presented two new tools designed to speed and improve the exchange, analysis and processing of information between countries. Participants stressed the need for real‑time intelligence sharing and standardised protocols to keep pace with criminal networks that increasingly use advanced technologies to deceive victims, conceal activities and adapt rapidly to enforcement efforts.

The assembly agreed on measures to coordinate a global response, including intensified intelligence sharing, targeted action against criminal financing, joint operations and worldwide awareness campaigns to protect vulnerable populations. Members also elected a new Executive Committee and confirmed France as Interpol’s president; the organisation has 196 member countries.

Lasne said he valued the meeting for reaffirming international police cooperation and for the close relations maintained with neighbouring security forces. During the conference he and Almendros held bilateral talks with France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez, senior officials from the French National Police and the Gendarmerie’s criminal investigation directorate, and the directors‑general of the police forces of Colombia, Chile and Monaco, among other counterparts.