How would a police officer go about tapping into Interpols databases of criminal information?
On a day-to-day basis, hundreds of searches are made of the international databases. Typically, a police officer or a customs officer at a port wants to check on a vehicle, so a search will be made on an Interpol database. As a result of introducing this international database of 2.3 million stolen motor vehicles, hundreds of those vehicles are identified and recovered every year. Similarly, when police officers are checking individuals and think that there might be an international dimension to the check, they will consult the database to see whether they find a “hit” on that personwhether he or she is recorded as wanted in another country. It’s a regular occurrence. But the most interesting things, of course, are the international multicountry operations that may last for eons and have much more significant results. Can you describe such an operation? One that started about two and a half years ago involved heroin smuggled from Thailand in hollowed out books in a series titled “Show
