HSI kicks off regional investigative training on cross-border crimes

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents from the HSI Attaché Office for the Southern Cone of the Americas began a four-day investigative training program on cross-border crimes Tuesday for Uruguayan and Paraguayan law enforcement officials.

The training, which is taking place in Uruguay and is being funded by the Department of State’s (DOS) Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), will focus on investigative techniques to identify cross-border crimes. These techniques have proven successful in combating the smuggling of bulk cash and other contraband.

Special agents from HSI Buenos Aires and ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility, as well as officers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and officials from the INL, will assist with the training.

“HSI, CBP and the U.S. embassies in Uruguay and Paraguay are committed to preventing illicit trade, travel and finance and the flow of money derived from transnational criminal activity that hurts the economic security of the region and the United States,” said Eddie Agrait, HSI’s attaché for the Southern Cone of the Americas.

HSI provides specialized training, technical assistance and best practices to foreign law enforcement personnel, border control personnel, intelligence and regulatory agencies, and judicial authorities on cross-border crimes. This HSI-led training will focus on integrity in law enforcement, interdiction techniques, and methods in combatting money laundering and contraband smuggling.

HSI has 67 offices and eight Department of Defense liaisons in 48 countries around the world with more than 380 government and contract personnel committed to the agency's mission. The attachés, part of HSI's International Operations, oversee HSI investigations and serve as agency liaisons to local government and law enforcement counterparts in countries across the globe. The attachés are responsible for the following duties:

• Coordinating investigations with foreign law enforcement counterparts;
• Providing training and capacity building to foreign law enforcement counterparts;
• Assisting in deportations by facilitating ICE efforts to repatriate removable aliens; and
• Referring requests from host country agencies to ICE domestic investigative offices.