WADA
WADA-led initiative wins prestigious award as seizures of performance-enhancing drugs pass the two billion doses mark
—- The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is proud to announce that its Global Anti-Doping Intelligence and Investigations Network (GAIIN) project has been recognized with the ‘Outstanding Enhanced Safety Award’ at the prestigious 2026 Crime Stoppers International Global Annual Awards ceremony in Panama City, Panama.
The award recognizes a significant contribution to public safety through intelligence sharing, surveillance, or crime prevention initiatives. The award comes just as the GAIIN project reaches new heights, with seizures of potentially deadly performance-enhancing drugs surpassing the two billion doses mark from no fewer than 260 joint operations throughout Europe, Asia and Oceania. The awards are part of the Crime Stoppers International 2026 World Summit, taking place this week in the Panamanian capital.
WADA President Witold Bańka said: “It is a tremendous honor for WADA to receive the Crime Stoppers International ‘Outstanding Enhanced Safety Award’. WADA’s Global Anti-Doping Intelligence and Investigations Network project is founded on a simple but powerful principle: we can achieve much more when we work together. Protecting clean sport increasingly requires us to look beyond the boundaries of sport and work closely with law enforcement and other partners to address the criminal networks involved in the manufacture and trafficking of performance-enhancing drugs.
“This award belongs to everyone who has contributed to the network – our intelligence and investigations team, National and Regional Anti-Doping Organizations, governments, law enforcement agencies, including INTERPOL and Europol, and many other partners around the world. I thank them for their commitment, expertise, and trust. The results achieved demonstrate the extraordinary impact that genuine international collaboration can have, not only for clean sport but also for public health and wider society.”
Chief Executive of Crime Stoppers International, Hayley van Loon, said: “The theme of this year’s Summit is crime convergence, and WADA’s GAIIN project is one of the clearest examples we have of what cooperation against converging crime looks like in practice. WADA recognized that the same networks manufacturing and moving performance-enhancing drugs are implicated in counterfeiting, money laundering and other serious offending, and that protecting athletes meant going after the supply chain rather than the end user.
“By bringing Anti-Doping Organizations, INTERPOL, Europol and national police agencies into a single intelligence-sharing network, GAIIN has delivered results that protect public health well beyond sport. As Crime Stoppers marks 50 years of turning community intelligence into action, we are delighted to recognize a partner that embodies that same principle on a global scale.”
GAIIN, which is led by WADA’s independent Intelligence and Investigations (I&I) Department, brings together Anti-Doping Organizations (ADOs), law enforcement agencies and other partners around the world to strengthen intelligence-sharing and investigative capabilities and disrupt the illegal manufacture and trafficking of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs).
Originating in Europe and now being expanded into other regions, GAIIN is establishing an increasingly connected global network of anti-doping and law enforcement professionals able to exchange intelligence, develop investigations and coordinate action across borders.
To date, GAIIN has initiated and supported 260 operations worldwide, contributed to the seizure of more than 100 tonnes of PEDs, and helped authorities dismantle 90 illicit laboratories. Thanks to these operations, more than two billion doses of potentially dangerous drugs have been prevented from reaching the global market and client lists containing the names of around 26,000 customers connected to sport-related enquiries have been confiscated by law enforcement and shared with WADA investigators.
The network has also enabled complex international investigations, including Operation Upstream, a large-scale transcontinental investigation involving more than 20 countries and coordinated by WADA, INTERPOL and Europol. Focusing on supply chains and kingpin traffickers, the operation has resulted in the seizure of several tonnes of PEDs and demonstrates the value of connecting anti-doping intelligence with the capabilities and jurisdiction of law enforcement authorities.
WADA Director, Intelligence and Investigations, Günter Younger, said: “Through this project, we are expanding from a traditional athlete-focused, bottom-up approach to a top-down strategy targeting the supply chain and those who enable and profit from doping at the expense of athletes’ health and wider society. Collaboration between law enforcement and NADOs is already delivering impressive results, identifying suspected facilitators and generating further investigations. This partnership has the potential to be a game changer—moving the fight against doping in sport from the end user to the criminal networks, producers, traffickers and facilitators behind it. We are very grateful to Crime Stoppers International for recognizing this work.”
GAIIN is now entering its next phase of global expansion. Following work across Europe and Asia/Oceania, the initiative is expanding into the Americas in 2026-2027, with workshops planned in Peru, Ecuador, the Cayman Islands and Jamaica. The project is then scheduled to expand into Africa in 2028.
About Crimestoppers International and its Global Annual Awards
Crime Stoppers International links a worldwide network of affiliated and accredited Crime Stoppers programs that educate communities about crime and give citizens a way to share information anonymously.
The Crime Stoppers International Global Annual Awards recognize programs, partners and organizations achieving significant results in reducing crime, strengthening law enforcement capability and increasing community awareness. This year, the awards were presented as part of the Crime Stoppers International 2026 World Summit, being held from 14-16 October at the JW Marriott Panama in Panama City. Delivered in partnership with the Caribbean, Bermuda and Latin America Foundation, the Summit brings together representatives from government, law enforcement, international organizations, civil society, academia and the private sector.
Under the theme “Crime Convergence – Cooperation Against Converging Crime”, the Summit focuses on the increasingly interconnected nature of transnational criminal activity, including trafficking, financial crime, cybercrime, organized crime, corruption and exploitation. The event also marks 50 years of Crime Stoppers and places particular emphasis on intelligence-sharing, public-private partnerships and cross-border cooperation.
WADA I&I investigator Natalia Chaparro was among the expert speakers at the World Summit. She delivered a presentation entitled, ‘Connecting Intelligence, Protecting Sport: The INTERPOL-WADA GAIIN Partnership’.
Media Contact
James Fitzgerald
Head of Media Relations
- 1-514-265-8031
media@wada-ama.org
