Customs: Drug smuggling along coast a ‘growing threat’

THERE is a “growing threat” of maritime drug smuggling along the Irish coastline, the customs drug chief said yesterday.

Michael Colgan said the EU police agency Europol described the Irish and British coastline as “vulnerable” to drug trafficking. “Europol highlighted it as a specific threat and it is a constant issue for us. It is a growing threat,” said the director of Customs Drug Law Enforcement.

Before the massive seizure off Bantry, he claimed, there had been no major maritime drug seizures off our coast in recent years.

The last such one, he suggested, was the haul of 320kg of cocaine at Kinsale in September 1998.

“We have contributed to international investigations during that time. There may have been vessels or people we had intelligence on, and there was international operations and seizures which may have not been revealed.”

Mr Colgan conceded Monday’s haul had been “fortuitous” and not the result of customs or garda operations.

“People who organise this type of smuggling are serious criminals. They have put money together to buy the drugs, hired craft, acquired navigation skills, had a landing crew and had to smuggle it on. It’s very difficult to detect.”

He said there were “no guarantees” that other similar smuggling operations were not happening.

The customs service, he said, could not have officers dotted all along the coast.

“Having one officer in every small port is just not tenable and it’s not best international practice. We are not out of kilter with other countries in that regard.”

Mr Colgan said customs, like police forces, operate mainly on prior information and the information sharing with other jurisdictions.

“Our business is increasingly intelligence driven, that’s best practice across the EU.”

He said seven countries, including Ireland, came together to set up an EU drug task force, to be based in Lisbon.

He said the Maritime Analysis and Operation Centre–Narcotics should be operational by the end of the year.

“We have identified that we are all vulnerable. If one consignment gets in, it can get into other countries. It is a threat to the EU and no one country can tackle it.”

Mr Colgan said some of the countries had resources such as aircraft and vessels to intercept shipments on the high seas.

“In this way we can more effectively deal with this type of traffic. Pooling resources and intelligence is the way forward.”