Philippines and Australian Federal Police Sign Crypto Investigation Training Agreement

On January 5, 2026, at PAOCC headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City, the Philippine Anti Organized Crime Commission, led by Undersecretary Benjamin Acorda Jr., and Detective Superintendent Brad Marden of the Australian Federal Police signed an agreement to deliver cryptocurrency investigation training to Philippine law enforcement. The training curriculum links blockchain analysis, transaction tracing, illicit finance detection, and evidence preservation to legal process and regional cooperation and includes classroom instruction, hands-on labs, live case clinics, device forensics, and a train-the-trainer track. A memorandum of understanding is under review to formalize joint operations, information sharing, and tasking across cybercrime, drug trafficking, and money laundering, and coordination points include the January 2026 National Anti Crime Coordinating meeting and the June 2026 ASEANAPOL gathering to refine tasking, legal templates, and early case selections. Modules will cover blockchain fundamentals, tracing across chains and services including bridges and custodial endpoints, detection of cross-chain laundering and privacy services, analysis of transaction traces and on-chain events for DeFi exploits and smart contract theft, AI-assisted fraud patterns, and device forensics to link signing events and preserve chain of custody. The program will produce a standardized investigation playbook with documented attribution steps, chain-of-custody procedures, reproducible documentation, and evidence continuity from analytics platforms to courtroom exhibits, and will incorporate partnerships with registered virtual asset service providers and legal templates for subpoenas, MLAT requests, and freezing orders. Agencies identified operational metrics under consideration, including time to first tracing report, percentage of illicit funds identified, and days from referral to charge, and plan to use shared tooling and playbooks to speed case building and asset recovery and to coordinate earlier preservation and freezing actions across jurisdictions. AFP support will extend to regional forums, including co-hosting the Pacific Organised Crime Summit in Fiji from May 17 to 22, 2026, and coordination with partners such as Five Eyes, INTERPOL, UNODC, and ASEANAPOL. The agreement signals that exchanges, custodians, and analytics vendors will receive standardized evidence packages and preservation requests, and firms are advised to update incident response and compliance playbooks, maintain current contact lists and escalation tiers, log activity in formats suitable for legal use, and rehearse cross-chain tracing handoffs. Immediate priorities are finalizing the MOU, delivering a repeatable investigation curriculum, and launching pilot cohorts across PAOCC and partner agencies to build sustained investigative capabilities. 

Source: https://web3businessnews.com/crypto/paocc-afp-crypto-training-ph/

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