Irish Examiner view: Drugs war taking its toll on society

The Kinahan cartel is among the continent’s top cocaine trafficking networks.

Donald Trump favoured a short way of dealing with Mexican drug barons, according to a new book from a Pentagon insider: fire off a few missiles over the border to destroy cartel labs, then deny that the US was responsible for the attack.

The assertion, contained in a new memoir A Sacred Oath by former US defence secretary Mark Esper and serialised in The New York Times, may have been one of those examples of blue-sky thinking beloved of shows such as, for example, The Apprentice, where wild solutions are proposed for problems and then winnowed to see if something sensible can be extracted from mad, unrestrained contemplation.

Drug gangs have a gross domestic product approaching the size of some nations, so why not just treat them as a failed state, and take action accordingly?

Some 90% of cocaine consumed in the US comes in from Mexico, but the US market is now dwarfed by Europe, where users pay a higher going rate.

As Cormac O’Keeffe reported on Friday, the Kinahan cartel is among the continent’s top cocaine trafficking networks and is responsible for driving spiralling levels of violence.

The EU’s police and drugs agencies say the Kinahan group have been involved in 20 murders across four European countries and used “specialised cells” to kill rivals.

In a joint report, Europol and the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction said gang violence has reached such levels in the Netherlands and Belgium that lawyers, ministers, police, and journalists have been targeted. Irish crime networks are “very large wholesalers” of cocaine and store significant hauls in “EU distribution hubs”.

€10bn cocaine market

The European cocaine market is estimated to be worth a minimum of €10.5bn, with record availability. Covid placed no let on its cultivation, manufacture, and trafficking.

Mexican cartels are increasingly involved in supplying cocaine into Europe, and agencies are worried about the emergence of “inexpensive” smokable cocaine products, different to crack, that are more commonly used in South America.

The report mentions a number of violent gangs, including the Kinahans: “Violence and homicides in several EU member states have also been connected to the notorious Kinahan clan from Dublin, Ireland. Conflict between the Kinahans and rival groups has led to the murder of at least 20 people in Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain ... the trial of some Kinahan clan members revealed that specialised crime cells were established in order to kill rivals.”

Southern Spain is particularly identified as the scene of “deadly score-settling incidents” between criminal networks, with 33 such murders in the Costa del Sol area between 2018 and 2021, including Irish nationals.

It may be an undeclared war, but war it certainly is, and the growth in the drugs market tells us that it is one society is losing. 

There will be profound consequences for social cohesion and general health and wealth if these trends continue. Rockets are not the answer, but appreciating the scale of the challenge is an important precursor to significant action.