The Palermo Protocol is the UN “Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children,” which supplements the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (adopted in 2000 in Palermo). It does three main things: • Requires countries that join it (“States Parties”) to make trafficking in persons a crime in their domestic law, using the common definition in Article 3 and also criminalizing attempts, accomplices, and organizers (Article 5). • Requires them to protect and assist victims, including measures for privacy, access to information about proceedings, support for physical/psychological recovery, possible residence status, and safe return to their home country (Articles 6–8). • Requires them to work to prevent trafficking and cooperate internationally, for example through awareness campaigns, research, border‑control measures, checks on travel documents, information‑sharing, training of officials, and other bilateral or multilateral cooperation (Articles 9–13, read together with the parent Convention).
An INTERPOL Red Notice is an alert circulated to police worldwide asking them to locate and provisionally arrest a person who is wanted in another country for prosecution or to serve a sentence; it is based on a valid domestic arrest warrant or court order. It is not itself an international arrest warrant: each country decides, under its own laws, what legal effect to give the notice and whether it can be used as a basis for arrest.
In the United States, the INTERPOL Washington National Central Bureau (a joint DOJ/DHS office) receives Red Notices and shares them with agencies like the FBI, DHS/ICE, and the U.S. Marshals Service. U.S. policy is that a Red Notice alone normally is not enough to arrest someone; instead, it alerts authorities that a person is wanted, and if there is a matching U.S. warrant or an appropriate extradition request under a treaty, U.S. officers can arrest the person and start extradition or related proceedings. The Justice Department press release on Pamela Bondi’s trip credits this kind of cooperation—U.S. agencies using INTERPOL data and notices—with helping arrest 365 fugitives with active Red Notices in the United States in the current calendar year.
Valdecy Urquiza is a Brazilian police commissioner who was elected and appointed Secretary General of INTERPOL in November 2024. Before that, he held senior roles in Brazilian federal policing and within INTERPOL itself.
The Secretary General is INTERPOL’s top international civil servant and head of its General Secretariat. In practical terms, this role is responsible for day‑to‑day management of the organization: implementing the strategic decisions of INTERPOL’s General Assembly and Executive Committee, overseeing global police databases and operational support, managing staff and budget, and ensuring that cooperation among the 196 member countries respects INTERPOL’s rules (including political‑neutrality and data‑protection rules).
The Polizia Postale e delle Comunicazioni (“Postal and Communications Police”) is a specialized branch of Italy’s national police (Polizia di Stato) that focuses on cybercrime, online fraud, child exploitation, and protecting critical information infrastructure and communications networks. It runs national cybercrime centers such as CNAIPIC (the National Centre for Cybercrime for the Protection of Critical Infrastructure).
The unit works closely with the FBI through information‑sharing, joint investigations and liaison officers. Italian police reports describe regular FBI visits and joint cybercrime work, and in 2023 the Polizia Postale set up the first desk in its Rome headquarters dedicated specifically to cyber‑security cooperation with the FBI, staffed by an FBI representative. This allows near‑real‑time coordination on cases like ransomware, hacking against critical systems, and online child‑exploitation investigations that affect both countries.
Extradition between the United States and Italy is governed mainly by a bilateral extradition treaty signed in Rome on 13 October 1983, later updated by a 2010 U.S.–EU extradition implementing instrument. The treaty lists categories of serious offenses (generally those punishable by more than one year in prison in both countries, a principle called “dual criminality”) and sets procedures for requests, supporting evidence, and grounds on which extradition can be refused (for example, political offenses). In practice, when one country wants a fugitive in the other, it sends an extradition request through diplomatic and justice‑ministry channels; courts in the requested country review the legal sufficiency and treaty criteria, and then the executive branch decides whether to surrender the person.
Mutual legal assistance in criminal matters (sharing evidence, taking witness statements, serving documents, executing searches, etc.) is handled under a separate Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters, signed in Rome on 9 November 1982 and in force since 1985. Each side designates a “central authority”—for the U.S., the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs; for Italy, the Ministry of Justice—to receive and execute requests. These MLAT procedures let investigators in one country lawfully obtain evidence located in the other, while still following the requested country’s domestic legal safeguards.
According to the Justice Department’s press material on this trip, these individuals were part of Attorney General Pamela Bondi’s delegation for meetings in Rome, Vatican City, and Lyon:
• Todd Blanche – An American lawyer and former federal prosecutor, known for representing Donald Trump, who has served as the 40th U.S. Deputy Attorney General since 2025. In this context he participated as Bondi’s deputy, supporting her in high‑level justice and law‑enforcement discussions with Italian officials, Vatican representatives, and INTERPOL leadership. • Matt (Matthew R.) Galeotti – A former federal prosecutor who became Acting Head/Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division in 2025. He joined the trip as the senior official responsible for DOJ’s criminal‑law enforcement portfolio, contributing expertise on transnational organized crime, human trafficking, cybercrime, and related cooperation issues. • Tilman Fertitta – A U.S. businessman who has served as U.S. Ambassador to Italy and San Marino since May 2025. During Bondi’s visit to Rome he acted as the chief U.S. diplomat in Italy, hosting and facilitating her meetings with the Italian Minister of Justice and Prime Minister. • Charles Kushner – A U.S. real‑estate developer who has served as U.S. Ambassador to the French Republic and Monaco since 2025. He took part in the Lyon leg of the trip as the senior U.S. diplomat in France, supporting Bondi’s engagement with INTERPOL’s Secretary General and French‑based international officials. • Brian Burch – A U.S. political activist and co‑founder of CatholicVote who has served as U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See (the Vatican) since 2025. He participated in Bondi’s Vatican meetings, including her encounters with Pope Leo XIV and Cardinal Pietro Parolin, representing U.S. interests in relations with the Holy See.