14 December 2022, Paris. France -- The World Customs Organisation (WCO) has just announced the successful outcome of Operation DEMETER VIII, a coordinated enforcement action that aims at intercepting illegal shipments of hazardous waste, especially plastic waste, as well as ozone depleting substances (ODS) and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). These commodities are regulated, respectively, by the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.
All WCO member states were invited to join this year’s operation. As part of this year’s edition, customs agencies in five member states investigated 13 cases that yielded seizures of 25 tonnes of substances controlled by the Montreal Protocol, which included both HCFCs and HFCs. Customs agencies from both Article 5 and non-Article 5 countries participated in this global operation, whose operational phase took place between 1-31 October.
The operation was led by the WCO Secretariat, the Regional Intelligence Liaison Office for Asia/Pacific (RILO A/P) and China Customs, with the assistance of an Operational Coordination Unit based at the RILO A/P in Seoul, Republic of Korea.
DEMETER VIII was supported by UNEP OzonAction, the Basel Convention Secretariat, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), the WCO-United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Container Control Programme, INTERPOL, Europol, the European Union Network for Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law (IMPEL), and the WCO RILO network.
Mr. Jim Curlin, Head of UNEP OzonAction, lauded the work of WCO and the other partners in this cooperative initiative, “High profile operations like WCO’s Operation DEMETER VIII are vital to keep the criminal element on the defensive, on the run, and hopefully to put them out of business.” He added, “Illegal traders undermine national commitments and legal obligations, contribute to harming human health and the environment, exacerbate the climate crisis, negatively impact honest businesses, and threaten consumers. Luckily, we have customs and other enforcement agencies to enforce the Montreal Protocol by ensuring that international trade in the controlled substances is carefully monitored, that licensing and quota systems are in vigour and are being respected, and that illegal trade is unmasked, prevented, and fought.”
As an Implementing Agency of the Montreal Protocol’s Multilateral Fund, UNEP considers WCO to be a strategic partner for promoting compliance and enforcement of this multilateral environmental agreement. As part of its Compliance Assistance Programme (CAP), UNEP OzonAction cooperates with the WCO, regional institutions and National Ozone Units on coordinated enforcement operations aiming to detect and deter illegal trade in controlled substances. OzonAction has participated in eight editions of Operation DEMETER, including this year’s edition of this high-profile global enforcement action.
The controls that countries are successfully using to meet their compliance objectives with the Montreal Protocol result in HCFCs and HFCs becoming more expensive as their supply becomes more restricted, which provides conditions for criminals to break the law to make a profit. Illegal trade in many of these substances continues to be detected across the globe, as criminals attempt to evade the controls and make money by supplying substances that should no longer be in use. The global community is pushing back against this trend by strengthening customs agencies’ capacities with regard to substances controlled under the Montreal Protocol and other environmentally sensitive goods, as well as through targeted initiatives like the ongoing DEMETER operations.
For more information, see the WCO press release in English and French
