A recent meeting held in Antananarivo has brought back into focus the crucial challenge of mastering maritime information to better combat trafficking and secure vital supplies. For an island nation like Madagascar, such an initiative is essential. Strengthening coordination against increasingly sophisticated criminal networks is the objective of the meeting organized by the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) in the Malagasy capital on August 5-6, 2026. The initiative brought together customs administrations, regional maritime security centers, and several international partners. At the heart of expert discussions, maritime intelligence emerges as a decisive lever. Indeed, in an environment marked by the vastness of maritime spaces and the diversity of flows, conventional surveillance shows its limits. Traffickers exploit containers, transshipments, and secondary ports to conceal their activities. The ability of countries to cross maritime data with customs information allows them to better identify risks and optimize controls. "Information gathered at sea takes on its full value when combined with risk analyses and inspections conducted by customs administrations. Conversely, the results of customs inspections enrich regional maritime intelligence and improve detection of new routes used by criminal networks," declared IOC Secretary General Dr. Ibrahim Norbert Richard. "Information, when analyzed, verified, and shared, becomes a true lever for action. It enables us to better identify risks, target interventions, and make our responses more effective. In the Indian Ocean, where no single state can monitor the vastness of its maritime space alone, information sharing has become a collective security issue." The work identified several operational priorities, including the creation of a regional customs intelligence network, establishment of a regional alert system, strengthening training in container control and ship searches, and developing permanent information-sharing procedures between customs administrations, national maritime information fusion centers, and the two regional ARSM centers. For the meeting organizers, these guidelines will feed into future activities of the Safe Seas Africa program. This approach, based on information sharing and analysis, shifts from surveillance to anticipation—an advance in itself. For Madagascar, the stakes go far beyond security alone. As an island, the country depends almost entirely on maritime transport for essential imports such as fuel, food products, medicines, and equipment. Any weakness in securing these flows exposes the national economy to major risks, from market disruption to social tensions. Illicit trafficking, by infiltrating supply chains, also weakens tax revenues and trade regulation. The approaches discussed at the meeting—regional intelligence network, alert systems, strengthened customs capacity—reflect an awareness that maritime security is inseparable from development. Investment in economic intelligence now amounts to protecting economic sovereignty.