Dunlough bay seizure among world’s largest

THE Dunlough bay haul put Ireland on the world cocaine map.

That seizure of 1.5 tonnes of cocaine was one of the 10 largest single hauls of cocaine in the world in 2007.

“It was definitely a very large seizure. It wasn’t the biggest, but it was very big,” said Thomas Pietchmann, research officer at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and main author of the World Drug Report 2008.

He said if Ireland’s annual cocaine total for 2007 was compared with the 2006 annual totals (the last available figures) of 31 European countries, Ireland had the sixth highest figure for seizures.

An island of just 4.2 million people had a slightly greater amount of cocaine seized than Germany (population 82m) and nearly half that of Britain (population 61m).

Mr Pietchmann said Ireland’s location as an island on the western edge of Europe made us more susceptible to trafficking but said we were not considered a centre for redistribution to other European countries.

“Normally, cocaine is trafficked out of Spain, or from Holland, from there to Britain and from Britain into Ireland. If this is coming to Ireland for redistribution for Europe this would be a big story.”

He said the data showed cocaine use had risen sharply in certain European countries, including Ireland.

“What is very clear is Ireland has been very much affected by rising levels of cocaine use in the last few years. It was one of the countries in 2005 with one of the biggest increases in Europe in cocaine use.”

The Dunlough bay haul may be considered a freak seizure, the likes of which may not be replicated for many years. The last such haul was of 320kgs of cocaine at Kinsale in September 1998, virtually all of which was bound for Britain.

It is thought the Dunlough bay haul would have been broken up into smaller consignments for transportation back to Britain, with some distributed within these shores. Given that the discovery of the 62 bales of cocaine off Mizen head was “fortuitous”, as one Customs officer described it at the time, we simply don’t know if there have been other shipments before, or since.

The 5,000km-long Irish coastline is largely unpoliced. Nor can it be, argue Customs officers, who point out that it simply would not be possible, or affordable, to have officers along the entire coast.

Customs, like police forces, around the world now operate mainly on intelligence, whether from detective work, surveillance, criminal sources or information from other law enforcement agencies.

But agencies know the country’s coast is a potential soft spot. The EU police coordinating body, Europol, warned in recent years that the British and Irish coastlines were vulnerable.

To counter the threat posed to the west European coast, seven states in the EU, including Ireland, have set up a co-ordinating body to intercept shipments, mainly of cocaine.

The shipments, like the Lucky Day catamaran, come directly from South America or via west Africa.

The EU’s Maritime Analysis and Operation Centre-Narcotics is based in Portugal and has at its disposal the naval and air resources of the larger EU states, including Britain and Spain.

As 16% of European waters are in the Irish zone, the agency could be of assistance to Ireland.