By Christine June
Public Affairs Office
George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany (Sept. 3, 2015) Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Counternarcotics and Global Threats Caryn Hollis stressed the importance of international partnerships to battle drug and human trafficking to the 79 participants from 49 countries that completed the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies’ Countering Narcotics and Illicit Trafficking resident course today. 

“Once you need a friend, it’s too late to make one,” she stressed about the importance of relationships formed here to combat transnational threats. 

The participants, who came from as far reaching as Fiji and Cote d’Ivoire, are now part of a growing network of more than 225 alumni from 73 countries who also completed the three-week resident course focused on 21st century national security threats as a result of illicit trafficking and other criminal activities. 

The CNIT program focuses on the national security threats posed by a wide range of transnational criminal activities. It examines how transnational criminal organizations impact a country’s national security.

This program is designed for government officials and practitioners who are engaged in policy development, law enforcement, intelligence, and interdiction activities aimed at countering illicit narcotics trafficking, terrorist involvement in criminal activity, and the associated elements of transnational crime and corruption.