Drug gangs’ expansion into cocaine and ecstasy

TURKISH criminal groups, which control the trafficking of heroin to Ireland and much of Europe, are expanding their business to other drugs, according to the annual report of Europol.

The European Union police agency said Turkish gangs, in partnership with Albanian criminal groups and others, were increasingly involved in the trafficking of cocaine and ecstasy.

In their 2003 annual report, Europol said a west African group had emerged as a trafficker of substantial amounts of cocaine into member states.

Gardaí say Ireland is one of the countries targeted by Nigerian traffickers. Garda sources believe this helps explain the massive rise in cocaine and ecstasy trafficking in the last two years.

“Turkish gangs have, for a long time, supplied the vast majority of heroin that comes to Ireland. Their expansion into cocaine and ecstasy and the rise of Nigerian gangs trafficking cocaine are no doubt contributing to what we are seizing,” said one detective.

Europol, which is made up of police officers from the EU’s member states, targets five main types of crime: terrorism; drug trafficking; illegal immigration and human trafficking; euro counterfeiting and financial crimes.

Recent developments in Europol include:

The establishment of a High Technology Crime Centre to combat the increasing use of advanced technology by criminals.

A manual on informant handling and a best practice guide on witness protection.

A Counter Terrorism Unit, which distributes updates a monthly report on Islamic terrorism for member states.

Cooperation between Europol and member states led to the identification of 59 child pornography suspects in 2003 and 129 suspects since 2001.

In relation to euro counterfeiting, the report said the quality of fake notes had “dramatically improved” because of sophisticated printing facilities and the use of professional counterfeiting.

Europol said money laundering was a core activity for organised crime groups and that financial crime was becoming increasingly prevalent.

The report said the possibility of an officer from Irish Customs joining the Irish Liaison Bureau at Europol was “still under consideration”.

A 25% rise in requests from Irish police for information from Europol matched a similar increase in the contribution of gardaí to Europol investigations.