Ireland: Drugs port of call
GIVEN the sheer volume of cocaine constantly crossing the Atlantic, it should come as little surprise that some is coming into Irish waters.
In January 2006, the United Nations drugs expert warned that Colombian cartels had identified Britain and Ireland as “vulnerable”.
In an interview with the Irish Examiner, Dr Antonio Maria Costa said traffickers were penetrating the lucrative European market every way they could.
“Colombian traffickers are trying to penetrate the European market through Spain, to a large extent, through the Balkans and through the vulnerable point of entry— the islands of Britain and Ireland — but especially the Iberian Peninsula.”
The 2008 annual report of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), published on Thursday, said 17% of the world’s global production of cocaine ended up in Europe in 2006. This compared to 14% in 2005 and 8% in 2000.
The extent of the cocaine bombardment has meant that despite sharp rises in the amount of cocaine being seized in Europe since 2000, the price of the drug actually fell over the same time period, with the seizures simply not having an impact on supply and availability.
A spokesman for the British Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), which was involved in the operation culminating on Thursday, said that they estimate around 350 tonnes of cocaine is consumed in the EU each year.
The EMCDDA said 121 tonnes of the drug were seized in Europe in 2006, suggesting around 470 tonnes were sent to Europe and indicating that around a quarter of all shipments are intercepted.
There are three main trafficking routes from South America into Europe. The biggest route, according to the UN is the so-called northern route, accounting for 40% of all cocaine entering Europe.
The routes follow established relationships, with the Netherlands receiving cocaine from the Netherlands Antilles, Britain receiving consignments from Jamaica, Martinique and Guadeloupe supplying France and the Azores the Iberian peninsula.
The Soca spokesman said they had no information which they could publicly release to estimate how much of this traffic was coming into Britain or Ireland.
“The northerly route is not the most common for cocaine coming into the UK. The primary route is through the Iberian peninsula and, in the last few years, west Africa.”
He said that most of what does come directly into Britain arrives in the major ports in the south east.
The second main trafficking route into Europe, the Central route, goes to the Iberian peninsula, often transiting through Cape Verde, Madeira or the Canary Islands.
The third main route is via west Africa and this route has attracted particular concern in the EU. It is estimated that 22% of cocaine seized in Europe in 2007 came via west Africa, compared to 12% in 2006 and 5% in 2008.
Frank Zobel, analyst with the EMCDDA, said that Spain and Portugal account for two-thirds of the cocaine coming into Europe.
“There is much more focus on the south, especially cocaine from west Africa going directly to Gallicia in Spain and north Portugal.”
But he said there was an established drug shipping route direct to northern Europe.
“There has always been a direct trafficking route from South America, and through the Caribbean, and can go the UK, Ireland or the Netherlands.”
Throughout the 1990s, there were a number of large-scale maritime seizures of cannabis and cocaine off the southwest coast, including 599kg of cannabis aboard the Sea Mist in Cork in 1996 and 325kg of cocaine in Kinsale harbour in September 1998.
He said the haul of 1.7 tonnes on Thursday was “a very large seizure”, but added that multi-tonne seizure was normal in Spain and Portugal.
The Soca spokesman said that while the amount was sizeable, it was normal for maritime shipments.
“Seizures under a tonne are uncommon, they are normally a tonne plus.” He said seizure by the Royal Navy in 2006 ranged from 1.3 tonnes to 5 tonnes.
The director of the EU drug coordination agency involved in Thursday’s haul said the seizure did reflect a significant trafficking route into northern Europe.
“The activity to date has been further south,” said Tim Manhire, director of Maritime Analysis and Operation Centre — Narcotics (MAOC-N).
“This demonstrates there is cocaine in large lumps reaching Northern Europe on a direct basis.”
He told RTÉ that the successful operation would not put traffickers off.
“It’s a business and it’s about money and as with all businesses people will try and fill the marketplace, so I would never suggest that it will put off traffickers.
“But it does at least provide some deterrence role and also allows you, as we should always do, tackle serious organised crime wherever we come across it as countries in a joined up multi-national way.”