Biography

Mr. Pierre Lapaque is a French "Commissaire divisionnaire" of Police (e.g.: Assistant Commissioner) who joined the force in 1982 and worked until the end of 1998 in Regional Crime Squads. Most of his career was spent in the south of France (Marseille, Ajaccio and Nice) as head of the Fraud Squads where he was in charge of numerous inquiries, among others, regarding the Italian and Russian Mafias and their connection with money-laundering offences. In his posts, he also worked with most of the Police and Customs Agencies around the world.

At the beginning of 1999 he was seconded by the Government of France to the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), a Trinidad & Tobago-based Organization, where he was the Deputy Director for more than three years.

In September 2002, he joined the Organization of American States (CICAD), Washington DC based Organization, where he was Senior Anti-Money-Laundering Advisor until August 2005. In this Position he dealt, at the hemispheric level, with all Law Enforcement issues within the Anti-Money-Laundering Unit of the Inter-American Commission against Drug Abuse.

From September 2005 till March 2009, he was the Attaché for Home Affairs at the French Embassy in Portugal and dealt mainly with Portuguese officials of bilateral issues related to Police and Home affairs.

From March 2009 till July 2010, he was the Law Enforcement, Organized Crime and Anti-Money-Laundering Chief of Unit within the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) based in Vienna.

From August 2010 till July 2012, he was the Chief of the Implementation Support Section of the Organized Crime Branch within the UNODC, dealing with all aspects of organized crime and money-laundering.

Since August 2012, he is the UNODC Regional Representative for West and Central Africa. Based in Dakar, Senegal, the office covers 22 countries in the region.