RIYADH, 30 May — The Kingdom has asked Interpol to arrest 750 people involved in money laundering, drug trafficking, swindling, credit card thefts and consumer fraud cases. This is in addition to a total of 1,207 cases of crime for which the Kingdom has contacted the 179-nation international police organization, while seeking cooperation to solve the cases.
Addressing a press conference here yesterday, Ronald K. Noble, Interpol’s secretary-general, said that “currently, there are 750 requests for arrests made by Saudi Arabia, whose Riyadh office is one of the most efficient Interpol offices in the world”. This figure includes 214 Saudis, whose names appear in Interpol’s database, and expatriates who fled Saudi Arabia.
Noble suggested in his talks with Saudi officials that a regional bureau of Interpol, especially for Arab countries, be set up. Arabic, he said, has already been adopted by Interpol as one of its official languages and the organization is trying to upgrade its system in Arabic to cater to the needs of Arab countries.
Noble discussed the plan to set up a regional office with Deputy Interior Minister Ahmed Al-Salem. “The Interpol currently has sub-regional bureaus in Central America, South America, North Africa, Central Africa and Southern Africa”, said the Interpol chief adding that “we need a full-fledged bureau to bring together Arabic-speaking countries and to ensure better exchange of information”.
Interpol is also planning to install the newly developed round-the-clock global communication system in the Kingdom, one of the few preferred countries for executing this project, he said.
Asked about Osama Bin Laden, who is on the run after Sept. 11 terror attacks on the US, the Interpol chief said that his organization was monitoring the case. He refused to go into details.
He, however, said that “any request Interpol receives on a matter involving terrorism, danger to anyone’s life or crime against children is responded to within 24 hours”. In reply to a question as to how Interpol deals with Israel, which is on a list of countries prepared by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for money laundering and organized crime, Noble played down the issue, calling all nations including the Jewish state to comply with the FATF’s 40 recommendations.
Regarding Interpol’s organizational structure, Noble said it has officers from 55 countries. “I have also asked Saudi Arabia to send one police officer to help Interpol to fight crime and terrorism”, he added.
