WCO Operation ZAFIRO: 19 Countries Conduct 1,431 General Aviation Controls, Seize 1.2 Tonnes of Narcotics and 11 Aircraft

The World Customs Organization has concluded Operation ZAFIRO, the third and largest international operation under its EU-funded COLIBRI Project, targeting criminal exploitation of General Aviation across Latin America, the Caribbean, and West and Central Africa. Over 16 days, customs administrations, police, anti-narcotics units, civil aviation authorities and military forces from 19 countries carried out 1,431 General Aviation controls, coordinated in real time from three Operational Coordination Units.

In total, 1,938 operational events were logged on the WCO Geoportal, including 367 observations, 125 runways recorded and 15 seizures. The operation yielded approximately 1.2 tonnes of narcotics across four drug seizures, 11 light aircraft seized in Bolivia's Beni department, and the identification of 86 clandestine airstrips. Additional cases involved undeclared works of art and aircraft abusing temporary admission rules.

For the first time, the COLIBRI Project ran three simultaneous Operational Coordination Units: a central unit hosted by the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre – Narcotic in Lisbon, and regional units in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, and Buenos Aires, Argentina. Key seizures included 262 kg of cannabis intercepted aboard a private jet at Asunción, Paraguay, which had arrived from the United States via Panama; 490 kg of cocaine recovered in a rural area of Tocantins, Brazil, near a clandestine airstrip alongside an aircraft showing signs of structural modification; and two cocaine seizures in Argentina totalling more than 500 kg, one involving 470 kg concealed behind fuel drums in a van.

In Côte d'Ivoire, officers found 16 undeclared works of art on a General Aviation flight bound for Lagos, and the case was referred to partner agencies including INTERPOL. In Senegal, checks revealed multiple aircraft had overstayed their temporary admission, some for years. WCO Secretary General Ian Saunders said the operation demonstrated that when customs administrations and partner agencies work together across borders, criminal networks exploiting General Aviation can be disrupted. A network of nationally trained analysts applied risk analysis and open-source intelligence techniques throughout the operation.

Operation ZAFIRO belongs to a category of coordinated multi-agency actions aimed specifically at general aviation, a segment long seen as less scrutinized than scheduled commercial traffic because of its smaller aircraft, private airstrips and lighter documentation load. The three simultaneous Operational Coordination Units, run out of Lisbon, Abidjan and Buenos Aires, let agencies share real-time data on a common geoportal instead of acting on isolated national tips, which is how the operation surfaced 86 clandestine airstrips and cases as varied as narcotics, undeclared art and overstayed temporary admissions in the same sweep.

General aviation oversight in these regions has typically relied on spot inspections at known airports; this operation instead layered nationally trained analysts using risk analysis and open-source intelligence on top of physical checks, a shift the WCO frames as moving from routine checking toward intelligence-led control. That approach depends on sustained information-sharing infrastructure rather than a single campaign, since the clandestine strips and overstayed aircraft identified this time were not previously flagged through ordinary customs processing.

What happens to the 11 aircraft seized in Bolivia's Beni department, the referral of the Côte d'Ivoire art case to INTERPOL, and whether Senegal's authorities act on aircraft found in prolonged violation of temporary admission rules will indicate whether this intelligence-led model produces lasting enforcement outcomes or remains a periodic, campaign-based exercise.