Ronald Noble, secretary general ICPO-Interpol, speaking on arrival at the Norman Manley International Airport on Thursday. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

APPROXIMATELY 29 persons have been prevented from entering the Caribbean, by using false documents, an Interpol official told The Gleaner Thursday.

Ronald K. Noble, secretary general of the organisation, said the documents were seized using Interpol's MIND/FIND system, a global database with information on over 13 million travel documents in over 120 countries.

"For the month of January, we had stolen passports from El Salvador, New Zealand, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States," Mr. Noble said. "Terrorists, war criminals and drug traffickers use stolen travel documents. Before Interpol put this (MIND/FIND) in place, there was nothing."

Mr. Noble, an American who formerly headed the United States Customs Service, arrived in Kingston Thursday for talks with Police Commissioner Lucius Thomas and National Security Minister Dr. Peter Phillips.

He will hold similar talks with security chiefs in Antigua, Barbados, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago before leaving the Caribbean on February 27.

The MIND/FIND scanner system was established in December 2005 and is used by immigration officials at airports in three countries: Switzerland, Belgium and France.

Testing phase

Mr. Noble said the MIND/FIND is currently going through the testing phase in the United States, Canada and Germany. He added that the ICC Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean is the first major event in which this database will be used.

He said the system has already paid dividends.

"Between 2002 and December 2006, the Caribbean had seized only 97 documents, and in two months, there's already been 29. That's amazing," he said.

CARICOM approached Interpol to assist in its security preparations for the World Cup which will be played in nine territories. An Interpol team has been in the Caribbean since October, helping authorities in areas such as dealing with possible terrorist attacks.

Police from the 12 countries in the World Cup will be in the Caribbean. The South Africa delegation, with 70, is the largest.

Interpol is the third-largest international organisation. It comprises 186 member countries.