Forty four students at the Seychelles Police Academy (SPA) have enrolled on a basic Chinese language course as part of their training.

The course, which is being facilitated by the SPA, the Confucius Institute in collaboration with the University of Seychelles (UniSey), started yesterday morning at the SPA at Pointe Larue.

The new course aims at introducing Chinese culture in Seychelles since China’s economy and exchanges with the world and even with Seychelles have seen rapid growth over the years.

There has also been a sharp increase in the world’s demand for Chinese learning.

All sessions will last two hours and are to be conducted once a week.

The course will also allow the students at the SPA to better interact with Chinese tourists.

Bilateral co-operation on homeland security issues such as police and prisons management, drugs smuggling and detection, health and detoxification treatment of drug users in prisons were the subjects of discussion when Home Affairs Minister Mitcy Larue met the Prime Minister of Mauritius, Pravind Jugnauth, in Port Louis this week.

Minister Larue is heading a high level prisons and police delegation during an official five-day working visit to Mauritius.

She is accompanied by the Superintendent of Prisons, Vic Tirant; her special advisor for Police, Sheryl Vengadasamy; principal probation officer Elsia Nourrice and prisons security intelligence officer, Shafik Andrade.

Talks with the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance and Economic Development, Pravind Jugnauth, focused on the strengthening of friendly relations and bilateral co-operation between the two countries.

Mr Jugnauth, who also holds the portfolio for Home Affairs, External Communications and the National Development Unit, pointed out that Seychelles and Mauritius share similar social problems such as drug trafficking and poverty which is affecting the productivity and socio-economic development of both island states.

A new detention facility for male detainees awaiting trial was officially opened on Wednesday, as part of reform initiatives being undertaken by the prison authorities.

The Detention Remand Facility, the country’s first, is located within a compound of the Seychelles police at Bois De Rose Avenue (formerly the Seychelles Coastguard base).

The facility, which was officially commissioned by the Minister for Home Affairs Mitcy Larue,  

has cost R6.5 million and has been fully financed by the government of Seychelles.

The National Drugs Enforcement Agency (NDEA) has arrested three persons for the offence of trafficking in a controlled drug during the course of last weekend and in the middle of this week.

During an operation conducted on Saturday April 15, 2017 at Kap Bonm Zan, Anse Royale NDEA agents arrested a 45-year-old man after they found herbal materials suspected to be cannabis drug and 180 suspected cannabis plants at his house.

Also found during the operation after the NDEA searched his house was a digital scale and a sum of R3,125 in different denominations.

A fire broke out in a Hyster container handler at the New Port yesterday afternoon at around 1.45pm, but fortunately there were no fatalities.

The Seychelles Fire and Rescue Services Agency was soon alerted of the incident and Seychelles NATION has learned that the fire started after a small explosion in the Hyster container handler – a vehicle used to lift containers on the port. The fire also partly burned items in two nearby containers.

Nine officers from the police and other law enforcement agencies, namely the Financial Intelligence Unit, National Drug Enforcement Agency and the customs department received their certificates yesterday after following a week-long training course in cyber-enable financial crimes.

The course was conducted by four experts from the Federal Investigation Bureau (FBI) and the Interpol and was run under the European Union’s Maritime Security MASE programme/Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) framework and financed by the European Union (EU).

It was aimed at building the capacity of the country’s law enforcement agencies involved in anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing activities linked to maritime crimes.

Present at the ceremony were the Commissioner of Police Reginald Elizabeth, senior officials from relevant agencies.

A group of agents from the National Drugs Enforcement Agency (NDEA), the Marine Police Unit and the Seychelles Coast Guard (SCG) are following two days of in-depth training to increase their knowledge of the dhow, its different compartments and possible hiding places.

The objective of such a training is to ensure these law enforcement agents are better prepared and are more knowledgeable when conducting open seas operations which involve searching such vessels for drugs as well as contraband goods.

The training includes theory sessions as well as practical; the latter will take place on an Iranian dhow berthed at the Bois de Rose jetty.  

The dhow, which was intercepted and seized by local law enforcement authorities last year, had concealed in its different compartments, a large consignment of drugs.

As the holiday season approaches with more people attending functions and an increase in consumption of alcohol which could lead to a rise in road vehicle accidents, domestic violence cases and crimes in general, the police have launched a Festive Operational Plan.

During the launch there were presentations on crime statistics, overview of opportunist crimes, road traffic deterrent initiatives, unveiling of posters for the second phase of the campaign ‘Arrive alive –drunk driving and speeding wreck lives’ and also that for home safety and business protection.

Some two thousand of these posters will then be distributed all over the country for education purposes.

Two forensic experts from Cellmark Forensic Services in the United Kingdom are in the country to assist the Seychelles Police in setting up a state-of-the-art DNA forensic laboratory.

The two engineers – Christopher Ford, operations development manager and Darran Bowden, project engineer of Cellmarks Forensic Services – on Friday met the Minister for Home Affairs, Mitcy Larue; Commissioner of Police, Reginald Elizabeth and Superintendent Jemmy Bouzin of the forensic department of the Seychelles Police Force, to present to them what their company has to offer in terms of services and equipment.

The meeting with the minister at her Independence House office  in Victoria was to showcase the government’s total commitment to the project.

The experts’ work started back in June 2015 when they were sponsored by Interpol to come over and see how a DNA forensic lab could be set up in Seychelles. And during that period between then and now the Seychelles Police was trying to secure funding for the project. This has materialised through a grant from India.

The experts have been here on a nine-day visit and during that time they have been looking at the fine details of exactly how the laboratory needs to be like. They have also met contractors, sharing some knowledge with them on how to build it because there are certain standards that should be met with regard to DNA forensic laboratories.

A lot has been said about noise pollution during the recent months. In January 2017, the Police environmental department mounted a task force to deal with the various complaints from the community. Two months after its existence, the department received 30 complaints from households’ noise pollution, four complaints for car pollution and three cases against picnickers. All have been dealt with and the offenders have been warned.

The Chief of Environmental Police, Andre Freminot, aong with police spokesperson Jean Toussaint, met the press this week to take stock of the situation and talk about the way forward.

“The majority of the population obeys and respects the laws. Unfortunately there are still some complaints about noise pollution. After a new set of laws was enacted last year, the Environment Protection Act, it helped in acting like a deterrent and prevents more offences to be committed. We want to inform the public that there is a task force and we are very serious about our interventions. We want to ask them to redeem themselves before we get into action,” explained Mr Toussaint.

“It has been two months since we are patrolling the hot spots and visiting districts on Mahé only. We have been responding to complaints. When an offence is committed, the police collect all the relevant information and the culprit is warned. Then the information is handed over to the environmental police. It is only the director of Environment that has the mandate to issue a notice for action,” noted Mr Freminot.

The Environment Police do act on Praslin and La Digue also whenever there are complaints.