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ARtificial IntelligencE in fighting illicit drugs production and traffickiNg

Project description

AI tools to combat drug trafficking in the EU

Illegal drug production and trafficking continue to pose significant challenges across Europe, fuelling organised crime and exploiting digital platforms. The growing role of the darknet and social media in drug-related activities has made it harder for authorities to track illicit operations. Financial flows linked to these crimes are complex and often hidden in unregulated online markets. Law enforcement agencies (LEAs) need innovative tools to understand, detect, and dismantle these networks. The EU-funded ARIEN project addresses this issue by using AI-driven tools to monitor and analyse drug trafficking in real-time. Through a multidisciplinary approach, ARIEN strengthens international cooperation and enhances the investigative capabilities of law enforcement agencies across the EU.

Objective

ARIEN proposes the execution of a comprehensive workplan that thoroughly addresses the call topic aligned to the 2021-2025 EU Drugs Action Plan (DAP) achieved through a holistic innovation action that builds a real-time intelligence picture illegal drug production and trafficking incidence across the EU bolstered by AI-driven tools to understand, detect, analyse and track the entire drugs trafficking chain, its financial flows and the role of black-markets in the global darknet and their relationships with of social media. ARIEN builds on a strong platform of multi-disciplinary research, following a co-creation approach, across the criminological, societal, and legislative landscapes that will make recommendations for harmonization and drive an agenda for the development of modular solutions embedding modern Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques and best practices for international cooperation in data-rich environments in a legally and ethically compliant manner. Aiming at improving the investigative capability of LEAs on illegal drugs production and trafficking, ARIEN will leverage on innovative AI techniques to monitor online illicit drugs markets and collecting precious information on physical drug-dealing hotspots through social media. Additional layers of analysis, supported by explainable AI (XAI) methods, will provide actionable knowledge on modus operandi and emerging threats and trends both on drugs and drug-related organized crime networks through integrations with criminal records data and detection of online activities. Moreover, ARIEN will promote effective strategies on international cooperation among EU and non-EU LEAs, Customs and Border Guards Authorities and policy makers to enhance investigative activities against criminal groups, capitalising on effective AI techniques.

Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

HORIZON-IA - HORIZON Innovation Actions

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) HORIZON-CL3-2022-FCT-01

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Coordinator

ENGINEERING - INGEGNERIA INFORMATICA SPA
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 785 400,00
Address
PIAZZALE DELL'AGRICOLTURA 24
00144 ROMA
Italy

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Region
Centro (IT) Lazio Roma
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 122 000,00

Participants (16)

Partners (2)

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