U.S. Ambassador to the EU visits Europol

Today, the Director of Europol, Mr Rob Wainwright, hosted the visit of US Ambassador to the European Union, Mr Anthony Luzzatto Gardner, at Europol's headquarters in The Hague. Director Wainwright and Deputy Director van Gemert welcomed the delegation and discussed Europol's cooperation with the United States.

Operational cooperation with the United States has increased significantly, with more than 600 international operations initiated in cooperation with US federal agencies in 2014 alone. This cooperation has brought many operational successes in various crime areas, including the take down of darknet marketplaces running as hidden services on the TOR network, large-scale violation of intellectual property rights, currency counterfeiting, cybercrime and the investigation against major organised crime groups involved in the distribution of child sexual exploitation material.

The Ambassador was briefed by experts from the Europol's European Cybercrime Centre and visited the Joint Cybercrime Action Task-force, ( J-CAT) the cybercrime operational task force with liaison officers from EU Member States, the FBI and the US Secret Services. The Ambassador also met 14 US Liaison officers stationed at Europol representing 10 different US law enforcement federal agencies. Director Wainwright and US Ambassador Gardner further exchanged views on future cooperation and the future of international policing.