Conroy bemoans European efforts to catch drug lords

Powerful drug lords are escaping the clutches of police because of a lack of co-operation at European level, the Garda Commissioner said today.

Noel Conroy expressed frustration with the work of Europol, the European agency which is responsible for co-ordinating efforts between international police forces.

He said the liaison officers appointed by EU member countries often ’brought nothing to the table’ when it came to helping investigations into international drug trafficking.

“The problem I see in Europol is that those liaison officers who represent other countries in the EU haven’t got the mandate at the end of the day to deal with issues which transverse different country’s boundaries,” he said.

Mr Conroy said this often meant that only those transporting the drugs across international borders could be caught.

“At the end of the day because of that type of situation, we don’t get to Mr Big. And that’s what we’re all trying to achieve, to take out the individuals who are directing all this traffic in relation to illegal drugs,” he said.

Europol was established in 1995 to allow police forces to co-operate more effectively in combating drug trafficking, terrorism, child pornography and other forms of serious crime.

It does not have any powers to arrest or prosecute criminals but works instead

to help police forces share intelligence and support each other’s operations.

“One thing I would love to see happening, is that the people that each country

sends to represent them, that they will have the authority to say we’ve got to co-operate with this crime (investigation),” said Mr Conroy.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Chief Constable Hugh Orde said he shared the Garda Commissioner’s concerns.

He said that many of the problems were related to the different laws in EU member states and pointed out that in Britain for example, it was illegal to use phone tapping evidence in court.

“Other countries see phone taps as legitimate and human rights-compliant. Passive surveillance is seen as far more intrusive, whereas we would see it as the other way round,” he said.

“As long as we have different legislation and different types of police techniques, we’re going to have difficulties.”

Both Mr Orde and Mr Conroy were speaking at a conference on the future of

policing at the Waterford Institute of Technology.

Following an amendment to Europol’s convention, the agency will soon have the power to request the police forces of a member state to carry out a criminal investigation, and this force will be obliged to give the request ’due consideration’.

In January, Justice Minister Michael McDowell officially opened the new base for the International Liason Unit at Garda headquarters in the Phoenix Park in Dublin.

Its staff liaise with the two Garda Inspectors attached to Europol headquarters in the Hague, and with Interpol, the international police organisation.