March/April 2017 ISSUE

INL Launches “New Face of the Border” Project in Ukraine

On March 28, INL and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Ukraine launched the “New Face of the Border Project” to tackle corruption among the ranks of the State Border Guard Service (SBGS) and improve services at two border crossings. The event, which was held at Boryspil International Airport, was kicked off by Ukraine’s Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman and featured remarks by U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov, and SBGS Chief Viktor Nazarenko. The event formally marked the start of the SBGS’ efforts to recruit 800 new staff for the two border crossings, with the officers hired through a new competence-based e-recruitment system. According to SBGS Chief Nazarenko, “over 60 percent of the newly recruited border guards will be selected from external candidates,” signaling a new standard to eradicate corruption through a transparent and competitive hiring process.

While INL has partnered with the SBGS for over 10 years on a variety of anti-corruption and capacity building measures, this project is the most in-depth reform effort to date. Following the success of the INL-supported Ukraine-wide Patrol Police reform throughout 2015-2016, SBGS approached INL/Ukraine in April 2016 to assist with a similar high-profile, high-impact project targeting persistent corruption within SBGS and Ukraine’s ports of entry. The “New Face of the Border” follows the Patrol Police model in that INL and IOM will work with SBGS to select, vet, train, and equip the new staff. SBGS will be required to meet certain benchmarks to ensure project success, including increasing salaries of the newly-hired staff.

A Border Guard officer participates in the launch of the “New Face of the Border Project” at Boryspil Airport in Kyiv, Ukraine.

At the ceremonial launch, Ambassador Yovanovitch also congratulated five graduates of the newly-created SBGS Polygraph unit who have just completed the INL-funded four-week polygraph course. These graduates will be instrumental in the vetting of the new 800 SBGS recruits. Following vetting and selection, training will likely begin in mid-May, and new staff will be deployed on-site by mid-August. INL funding supported the software and hardware for the e-recruitment system, the donation of four polygraph machines, assistance with recruitment advertising, and updated training programs for border guards.

Strengthening the Rule of Law through Better Forensic Services in the Kyrgyz Republic

On January 25, U.S. Ambassador to the Kyrgyz Republic Sheila Gwaltney made opening remarks at the grand opening of the new State Forensic Center (SFC) under the Ministry of Justice of the Kyrgyz Republic. The new State Forensic Center (SFC) is an important resource for this nation’s fight against criminal activity. Since 2014, INL has provided the Forensics Center with technical assistance to strengthen forensic services.

Ambassador Sheila Gwaltney (second from left) cuts the ribbon to the new State Forensic Center.

The previous State Forensic Center, the workplace of over 100 employees, was located in a dilapidated building dating back to the 1940s. In 2010, a Kyrgyz Interagency Committee determined that the building’s poor condition threatened the health of people working in the facility. In early 2014, INL signed an agreement with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to rehab a building for SFC’s new home. The UNODC project not only included construction of the premises but focused on improving the capacities of the State Forensic Service to provide quality forensic examinations. To this end, UNODC is providing training to five of SFC’s 13 departments (handwriting, technical examination of documents, ballistics, fluorescent examination, and forensic examination of materials and substances, including drugs) to help them achieve international accreditation. In addition, INL will purchase modern laboratory equipment to support the accreditation schedule.

By June, INL Bishkek expects the Government to announce that it will consolidate two existing forensics labs first (Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Justice) into one lab. By 2018, the other two labs (Ministry of Interior and State Service on Drug Control) will join the consolidated labs, with the SFC, which currently handles more than 80% of all forensic examinations in the country, as the successor organization. INL chose the lab as its partner because of its current and future role in providing accurate and reliable results to aid in criminal investigations.

New INL Findings Related to Drug Cutting Agents Prove Relevant to U.S. Opioid Epidemic

Over the last two years INL has supported important progress related to the rapidly emerging trend of cutting drugs with highly toxic adulterants, a phenomenon with profound effects on public health worldwide. Traditionally, drugs were mostly cut with benign cutting agents such as sugar-based mannitol and lactose. This trend began to change several years ago, resulting in a silent epidemic affecting short- and long-term health of drug users, increasing infections and diseases, and causing overdose and death.

In response, INL’s toxic adulterant project tested drugs in Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, and South Africa in an effort to determine the cause of drug-related public health crises in these countries. Testing uncovered the trend of cutting drugs with multiple toxic agents, some of which can reduce white blood cells and thereby increase the prevalence of infections and diseases, reduce red blood cells that carry oxygen to the brain, or increase bone marrow toxicity, renal/kidney failure, bladder cancer, liver damage, and neurological problems, among others. Here in the United States, levamisole, a veterinary de-wormer that depletes white blood cells in humans, is detected in 87% of cocaine entering our nation. And in 2013, DEA reported that 70% of heroin produced in our hemisphere entering the U.S. was cut with diltiazem, a calcium channel blocker that suppresses heart rate and the central nervous system.

INL is working to ensure that testing for these deadly adulterants can be more easily performed on drugs circulating on the street. Using a special portable drug testing machine, the INL project has determined that over 60% of street drugs in select foreign countries are now cut with multiple toxic adulterants. NMS, the forensic laboratory in Pennsylvania (a project sub-contractor) that supports the testing of drugs internationally, is also using this similar process to test 50 drug samples provided by labs in Kentucky and Vermont. The resulting findings will provide communities in the U.S. and abroad with vital public health information to explain drug overdoses, hidden epidemics, and previously unexplained health-related problems from drug use. Further analysis can also lead to developing signatures to help identify toxic adulterants contained in illicit substances.

In addition, the INL project is also developing the first instant toxicological tests (e.g., urine) for toxic adulterants to help public health and medical workers diagnose causes for critical, drug-related health problems. Current testing is only available for controlled drugs themselves (e.g., heroin, cocaine, etc.), not the adulterants or cutting agents. The project has already successfully piloted an “instant test” for one toxic adulterant in Brazil, and is months away from developing the first such tests for deadly cutting agents levamisole and aminopyrine. In addition, the INL project is beginning the process to obtain FDA approval for using these instant test kits in the United States.