Call for united front to fight drug cartels
Tim Manhire, boss of the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre - Narcotics (Maoc-N), spoke after three British men were jailed after being caught with 1.5 tonnes of cocaine on board a stricken yacht 240 kilometres off the south-west coast.
Mr Manhire said narcotics producers have turned to the north Atlantic as a smuggling route.
The Lisbon-based agency tracked the yacht, Dances With Waves, from the Caribbeanbefore it was seized last November by Irish authorities.
“You’ve got to remember Colombian groups don’t target countries – they target Europe, and therefore it makes sense for Europe to be tackling it together,” Mr Manhire said.
Dances With Waves was identified as a suspect vessel by Britain’s Serious Organised Crime Agency. Its intelligence was quickly passed to Maoc-N, which kept tabs on the drugs-laden yacht for one month as it came across the Atlantic.
“It was decided the way to take it out was to use an Irish asset. The Irish very kindly volunteered that they had something significant to put into the operation and the Irish Navy responded very effectively and very quickly,” Mr Manhire said.
The agency was set up so that seven countries, many bordering the Atlantic, could pool resources, information and assets.
It has co-ordinated the seizure of 43.5 tonnes of cocaine and more than 20 tonnes of cannabis since it was formed in September 2007, with successful prosecutions in eight countries.
But despite this success rate, up to 400 tonnes of cocaine is said to make its way in to satisfy the European market each year.
During Operation Seabight, the Irish Joint Task Force on Drug Interdiction was called in for the first time to take command, with naval, Garda and Customs chiefs leading the interception on the high seas.
Mr Manhire said the haul was significant because of its size, its route and the fact that three Englishmen were on the yacht and controlling the drugs on board.
Despite two of Ireland’s largest ever hauls in recent years, Mr Manhire dismissed suggestions that the rugged south-west coastline makes it any more open to drug traffickers than anywhere else in western Europe.
“If you look at the Cornish coast, French coast, Galicia (Spain), the Portuguese coast, they are much too big areas to be able to seal up and much too big areas to be able to patrol without actually spending a fortune.
“Like always, law enforcement rely on information.”
It was vital that countries continued to work together in the fight against drugs, he added.
