INTERPOL   

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This international organization is an international police department. The only difference from this organization than other police forces is that Interpol’s purpose is to issue arrest warrants  (red coloured warrants) at the requests of police departments around the world.

 It was originally established as the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC) in 1923. It later chose INTERPOL (International Police) as its telegraphic address in 1946, and made it its official name in 1956. Its headquarters are in Lyon, France.

In the first part of the 20^th century, several efforts were taken to formalize international police cooperation, but that was  initially a failure. Among these efforts were the First International Criminal Police Congress in Monaco in 1914, and the International Police Conference in New York in 1922. The Monaco Congress failed because it was organized by legal experts and political officials, not by police professionals, while the New York Conference failed to attract international attention,

In 1923, a new initiative was taken at the International Criminal Police Congress in Vienna, where the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC) was successfully founded as the direct forerunner of INTERPOL. Founding members included police officials from Austria, Germany, Belgium, Poland, China, Egypt, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, and Yugoslavia. The United Kingdom joined in 1928. The United States did not join Interpol until 1938, although a US police officer unofficially attended the 1923 congress.

Following Anschluss  (annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany  in 1938) the organization fell under the control of Nazi Germany, and the Commission's headquarters were eventually moved to Berlin in 1942. Most members withdrew their support during this period. From 1938 to 1945, (Second World War in Europe) the presidents of the ICPC included  Otto Steinhäusl,  Reinhard Heydrich, (who was later assassinated during the war) Arthur Nebe, and  Ernst Kaltenbrunner. All were generals in the SS, and Kaltenbrunner was the highest ranking SS officer who was later executed in 1947 after being convicted of several war crimes at the Nuremberg Trials.

After the end of World War II in 1945, the organization was revived as the International Criminal Police Organization by officials from  Belgium,  France,  Scandinavia and the United Kingdom. Its new headquarters were established in Saint-Cloud, a suburb of Paris. They remained there until 1989, when they were moved to their present location in Lyon.

Until the 1980s, INTERPOL did not intervene in the prosecution of Nazi war criminals in accordance with Article 3 of its Charter, which prohibited intervention in "political" matters.

n July 2010, former INTERPOL President Jackie Selebi was found guilty of corruption by the South African High Court in Johannesburg for accepting bribes worth €156,000 from a drug trafficker. After being charged in January 2008, Selebi resigned as president of INTERPOL and was put on extended leave as National Police Commissioner of South Africa. He was temporarily replaced by Arturo Herrera Verdugo, the National Commissioner of Investigations Police of Chile and former vice president for the American Zone, who remained acting president until October 2008 and the appointment of Khoo Boon Hui.

On the 8^th of November 2012, the 81^st General Assembly closed with the election of Deputy Central Director of the French Judicial Police Mireille Ballestrazzi as the first female president of the organization

In November 2016, Meng Hongwei, a politician from the People's Republic of China, was elected president during the 85^th Interpol General Assembly, and was to serve in this capacity until 2020. At the end of September 2018, Meng was reported missing during a trip to China, after being "taken away" for questioning by "discipline authorities" The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced that Meng was being investigated by the National Supervisory Commission, an anti-corruption agency, for allegedly taking bribes.  On the 7^th of October 2018, the organization announced that Meng had resigned his post with immediate effect and that the Presidency would be temporarily occupied by INTERPOL Senior Vice-President (Asia) Kim Jong Yang of South Korea.

Athough reading the gleeful mainstream coverage of the news, it’s much easier to find out who didn’t get the job or more specifically, that the losing candidate was Russian.  Alexander Prokopchuk, who currently serves as Interpol’s vice president was the favorite to take the top job at the international policing organization.

The other obvious conclusion to make here is that the only reason Prokopchuk did not get the job was because of his nationality. Indeed, it was the fact that the organization’s vice president is Russian which led to the campaign of pressure by the United States and Britain to prevent him from being elected to the position, despite his suitableness for the job. Isn’t that exactly the kind of election interference Western powers have claimed to find so unacceptable? The reason for not accepting the Russian to be the next president is obvious. The President of Russia is   Vladimir Putin who is known as one of the most dishonest leaders of as nation in the world. The head of INTERPOL is answerable only to the directors of INTERPOL and not to the leaders of any nation.

To keep INTERPOL as politically neutral as possible, its Charter forbids it from undertaking interventions or activities of a political, military, religious, or racial nature or involving itself in disputes over such matters. Its work focuses primarily on public safety and battling transnational  crimes against humanity,  child pornography,  cybercrime,  drug trafficking  environmental crime,  genocide,  human trafficking, illicit drug production, copyright infringement, missing people, illicit traffic in works of art, intellectual property crimes, money laundering, organized crime, corruption, terrorism, war crimes crimes, weapons smuggling, and white-collar crimes.

        

“Information-sharing 24 hours, seven days a week, 365 days a year among U.S. law enforcement agencies like ERO and the USMS, along with the 189 other INTERPOL member countries. Washington ensures that transnational criminals have no place to hide,” stated IINTERPOL Washington Director Shawn A. Bray. “By facilitating the sharing of this information with our law enforcement partners, together, we will continue to enhance safety and security for U.S. citizens and the global community.”   

Seventy-seven criminal foreign fugitives with active Interpol alerts were arrested across the United States one particular week by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) and the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS).

Those arrested were from 13 different countries and wanted for crimes abroad. Of the 27, five are wanted for homicide, two for kidnapping, one for raping a child and one for human sex trafficking.

“Criminals who create mayhem in the United States or abroad should understand that law enforcement is a global partnership,” said ICE Director Sarah R. Saldaña. “We will find them, and we will bring them to justice.”

Arrests occurred nationwide in nine states during the three-day sweep, which took place. Those arrested fell squarely into the agency’s enforcement priorities, which ICE officers prioritize and enforce every day.

“The arrest of these foreign fugitives should send a strong message to anyone attempting to avoid prosecution for their crimes here in the U.S. or abroad,” said USMS Director Stacia Hylton. “Our men and women were relentless in their effort to locate and apprehend these criminals.  We hope our effort gives victims a sense of comfort in knowing these individuals are no longer on the streets.”

“Information-sharing 24 hours, seven days a week, 365 days a year among U.S. law enforcement agencies like ERO and the USMS, along with the 189 other Interpol member countries and Interpol Washington, ensures transnational criminals have no place to hide,” stated Interpol Washington Director Shawn A. Bray. “By facilitating the sharing of this information with our law enforcement partners, together, we will continue to enhance safety and security for U.S. citizens and the global community.”

Arrests included:

On June 2, ERO arrested Nelson Garcia Orellana, 30, and his brother Jorge Garcia Rivera, 23, both natives of El Salvador, in Trenton, New Jersey, and Alexandria, Virginia, respectively. They are wanted by authorities in their home country for kidnapping and are the subjects of Interpol Red Notices.

On June 2, ERO arrested Gabriel Collado Gonzalez, 40, a native of Nicaragua, in Miami. Gonzalez is wanted by authorities in his home country for embezzlement and criminal conspiracy and is the subject of an Interpol Red Notice.

On June 2, ERO arrested Raul Ortiz Henriquez, 40, a native of El Salvador, in Santa Fe Springs, California. Henriquez is wanted by authorities in his home country for rape of a minor. In November 2013, Henriquez grabbed his victim by her arms and forced her into a van he was driving while she was leaving school. He drove away, parked, beat her in the chest and raped her. He is the subject of an Interpol Red Notice.

There is often tension between nations but when it comes to apprehending fugitives, Interpol is the glue that binds them together.