The Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard has decided to improve and increase the latest generation technology with which it carries out its police investigations. This is why this elite team decided buy a 3D printer make their own rooms in which to camouflage the tools with which they monitor the objectives of their operations.
On October 23, the Head of Economic Affairs of the Civil Guard opened the tender for the Public Sector Procurement Platform. The budget is 57,477.42 euros. To combat organized crime, in its most serious forms of delinquency, the Central Operational Unit of the Judicial Police considers it necessary to acquire this specific technical equipment “to achieve the operability and efficiency of the service”.
Organized crime organizations are adopting increasingly sophisticated security methods to avoid detection and carry out their illegal activities. It is for this reason that the units dedicated to the specific surveillance of these people must have specialized technical equipment and advanced technology.
One of these tools will be this 3D printer, which will help officers effectively track criminal activities.
With this technology, as indicated in the supporting report of the tender file, the UCO intends “Navigating the countermeasures that can be deployed the organization under investigation.
Thanks to it, researchers will develop “all kinds of necessary parts and objects for operational agents, in order to improve operational capabilities in the fight against organized crime.
Sensitive operations
“We need to have the most innovative systems,” he continues. This is essential so that agents, in full operational deployment, have every guarantee that they will not be discovered by the criminal organizations they are investigating. And for this it is essential that they are exposed as little as possible.
Thus, with this printer, the UCO will be able to produce parts or components of its own design which will be used for the proper development of operations. They will be able to camouflage all kinds of elements there which will allow them to more easily follow their objectives with greater discretion.
This technological improvement comes at the height of the Koldo affair and with the possible accusation in this case of former minister José Luis Ábalos, after the request addressed to the Supreme Court by the judge of the National Court who is investigating this case.
At the same time, the UCO maintains open operations against organized crime and drug trafficking. In these, in which he pursues and tracks very dangerous targets, it is in those for which researchers need the most discretion.
The printer that UCO will purchase is a “selective laser sintering” device. According to the Civil Guard, this technology will allow operational agents to “collect legal evidence of crimes that could be committed and thwart the objectives of criminals, making them available to the judicial authority.”
At the UCO it is estimated that this tool will be very useful in an operation involving any type of crime, but especially in those directed against organizations dedicated to smuggling and money laundering.
In these countries, due to the care usually taken by criminals, it is more difficult to directly carry out operational surveillance of their members. Drug dealers or mafia bosses take all kinds of precautions during their meetings. This is why physical observation or the use of conventional devices is so difficult.
“For this reason”, we read in the public report of the call for tenders, not yet awarded, “it is necessary to have more and better technical means, which provide the necessary intelligence to support the judicial processes “. “It is considered precise and priority,” the document specifies.
