Detection of illicit material for postal services and courier flows

European Perspective

Preventing and fighting illicit material and dangerous substances in postal and courier services flows in EU areas is of top priority. However, ensuring efficiency, speed and continuity in screening and detection tasks remains yet a challenge. Currently, custom, police and courier authorities involve a range of screening systems in place but there is still much to do in terms of detection efficacy and creation of intelligence towards risk and threat identification. On top of that, criminals or smugglers exploit the multitude of flows and easily spot security gaps that allow parcels or letters to be transported within or across EU with relative ease.

Objectives

To overcome these constraints, iFLOWS proposes a unique approach to assist customs, police and postal/courier services in preventing and detecting such crimes by improving operational readiness, enhancing situation awareness, reducing detection time, providing operational efficiency and achieving superior mission performa iFLOWS will design, develop, integrate, test and validate a novel multi-tier synergistic Toolkit in enhancing intelligence extraction, screening and detection operations of illicit material and hazardous substances within courier and postal flows moving across and within EU borders. iFLOWS works upon following strategic objectives:

• To enhance EU detection capabilities of dangerous and illicit goods transported within post and parcels flows.
• To ensure uptake of the iFLOWS solutions through wide communication and dissemination activities as well as efficient exploitation, business planning and market analysis.
• To test and validate iFLOWS scanning systems and intelligence services with the active engagement of users.

RISE is primarily involved in two work packages: development of new technology for THz sensors and test and evaluation of various detection solutions developed in the project.