From 1 to 5 June in Ust-Kamenogorsk, eastern Kazakhstan, the Office in Astana co-organised with the State Revenues Committee of the Finance Ministry and the United States Embassy in Kazakhstan the second five-day training seminar on countering transnational organized crime and trafficking in drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors. Some twenty officers representing the State Revenues Committee, the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Border Service of the National Security Committee alongside customs officials from Azerbaijan, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan learnt from national and international experts from Georgia, Turkey and the USA about best practices in countering transnational organized crime, identifying and closing international channels of illicit drugs and their precursors as well as in using psychological techniques to identify drug traffickers. Interactive exercises simulated real-life situations that customs officers might encounter in their everyday work.