Europe flooded with cocaine despite coronavirus trade disruptions

[snoop1130]

Europe flooded with cocaine despite coronavirus trade disruptions

By Francesco Guarascio

 

FILE PHOTO: A Brazilian custom agent uses a sniffer dog to inspect a container going to Europe for smuggled drugs at the Port of Santos in Santos, Brazil September 24, 2019. Picture taken September 24, 2019. REUTERS/Amanda Perobelli -/File Photo

 

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Latin American drug lords have sent bumper shipments of cocaine to Europe in recent weeks, including one in a cargo of squid, even though the coronavirus epidemic has stifled legitimate transatlantic trade, senior anti-narcotics officials say.

 

The illegal drugs industry has been disrupted by the virus, with international supply chains busted and millions of customers on lockdown.

 

But drug kingpins have risen to the challenge, packing huge loads of cocaine into the fewer container ships and commercial airplanes in circulation in a sign they were ready to take higher risks to deliver their wares.

 

“Based on seizures of bigger-than-usual shipments of cocaine, it would be fair to say that Europe was flooded with cocaine ahead of lockdowns,” Bob Van Den Berghe, senior law enforcement officer at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), told Reuters.

 

This trend has continued despite many European countries - including major user markets such as Britain and Spain - severely restricting their populations’ movements.

 

“The global pandemic, at this moment in time, has not had an effect on maritime drug trafficking. It’s business as usual,” said Michael O’Sullivan, head of the EU-funded Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre which coordinates interdictions at sea.

 

In the first three months of this year, UNODC confiscated 17.5 tonnes of cocaine bound for Europe in South American ports, mostly Brazilian. That represented a nearly 20% rise compared to the same period in 2019, Van Den Berghe said.

 

The larger catch was the result of fewer seizures of heavier loads. Nearly seven tonnes directed to the Dutch port of Rotterdam, the largest in Europe, were apprehended in four operations so far this year, according to U.N. data. In the same period last year just over four tonnes were intercepted in eight separate seizures.

 

This month, Belgian authorities seized nearly five tonnes of cocaine in a container from Latin America in the port of Antwerp, which last year was Europe’s main entry point for cocaine with more than 60 tonnes intercepted there.

 

That followed several seizures there of more than one tonne in March, said Kristian Vanderwaeren, head of customs for Belgium, which went into lockdown on March 17.

 

“We were used to consider a one-tonne seizure as an important operation,” he told Reuters, declining to give further details.

 

Amounts seized are usually only a fraction of total shipments and offer a proxy estimate of illegal trade.

 

Europol estimates the European market is worth at least nine billion euros ($9.8 billion) a year. France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Britain account for just over 87% of its estimated four million cocaine users.

 

HIDDEN IN SQUID

 

The traffickers are as ingenious as ever, taking advantage of the fact that Europe’s import of fruit, vegetables and other foodstuffs from South America is among the few sectors that have only been marginally affected by the epidemic.

 

The five-tonne cocaine cargo seized in Antwerp was concealed in a refrigerator container carrying squid from Latin America, Van Den Berghe said.

 

At the port, the squid load was separated from the cocaine and transferred into an identical container before undergoing checks. But authorities foiled the criminal plan.

 

The rise in big cocaine loads in shipping containers followed a similar trend with airplanes, Vanderwaeren said.

 

In mid-March, just before Belgium began its lockdown and most commercial flights were suspended, customs officials at the main airport of Zaventem seized 350 kg of cocaine hidden in suitcases in a plane from the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean - an amount 200 times bigger than usually detected in air shipments of narcotics.

 

“That is because the number of planes flying from South America to Europe was reduced substantially and each plane was a good opportunity to transport cocaine,” Vanderwaeren said, adding that this was not an isolated case.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-04-30

 

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[rasmus5150]

5 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

This month, Belgian authorities seized nearly five tonnes of cocaine in a container from Latin America in the port of Antwerp, which last year was Europe’s main entry point for cocaine with more than 60 tonnes intercepted there.

60 tonnes of coke confiscated...WOW.

you could fill a swimming pool with coke.

Then you would be "swimming and flying" at the same time...

[DoctorG]

It's a numbers game. If they send 4 consignments and 3 are intercepted, they still make a good profit. They have tonnes of the stuff.

[Tarteso]

This is just what the Europeans need right now in their noses. ????

Edited May 1, 2020 by Tarteso

[BritManToo]

13 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Europol estimates the European market is worth at least nine billion euros ($9.8 billion) a year. France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Britain account for just over 87% of its estimated four million cocaine users.

Legalise it and the problem is gone.

[samtab]

9 hours ago, rasmus5150 said:

60 tonnes of coke confiscated...WOW.

you could fill a swimming pool with coke.

Then you would be "swimming and flying" at the same time...

 

yes, maybe 0,0000001 % of all that is imported monthly ! hahahaha

 

 

[Thailand]

They cartels will be sending booze to Thailand soon maybe more profitable. ????

[Proboscis]

It is just amazing that cocaine can be found anywhere while I cannot get my own perfectly legal medication.

[Thingamabob]

6 hours ago, DoctorG said:

It's a numbers game. If they send 4 consignments and 3 are intercepted, they still make a good profit. They have tonnes of the stuff.

Correct.

[Baerboxer]

5 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Legalise it and the problem is gone.

 

Great thinking Einstein. Let's legalize murder, rape, fraud, robbery and make all these problems go away too - lo!

 

Are you related to Mayor Khan?

[BritManToo]

Just now, Baerboxer said:

Great thinking Einstein. Let's legalize murder, rape, fraud, robbery and make all these problems go away too - lo!

Are you related to Mayor Khan?

Cocaine doesn't harm anyone, maybe not even the person taking it.

I used to go to corporate parties in London regularly were cocaine was provided.

[Captain Monday]

12 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

 

Great thinking Einstein. Let's legalize murder, rape, fraud, robbery and make all these problems go away too - lo!

 

Are you related to Mayor Khan?

Not the right comparison. You will always have crimes like that. Coke trade is only a crime as it is illegal and there is a lot of money in it. That illegal tradegenerates, murders, tax evasion,  human trafficking, funds terrorists, etc. Legalize and TAX it like the many US states did with Cannabis.

 

[timendres]

Sounds like these drug kingpins should be running the WHO... At least they get the job done.

[3NUMBAS]

narco subs can make it across the atlantic from south america to holland so theyre hard to stop nowadays

[Lokie]

7 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Cocaine doesn't harm anyone, maybe not even the person taking it.

I used to go to corporate parties in London regularly were cocaine was provided.

Lol, think you may be being a little nieve if you really think a bit of Charlie dont harm anyone...

 

Do you really know where it comes from and how it all works outside of your parties with a few Hooray Henry's???

[BritManToo]

8 hours ago, Lokie said:

Lol, think you may be being a little nieve if you really think a bit of Charlie dont harm anyone...

 

Do you really know where it comes from and how it all works outside of your parties with a few Hooray Henry's???

And you're being a little 'naive' if you believe any of the anti-drug propaganda.

Half a dozen Big Macs re probably worse for your body.

[Lokie]

18 hours ago, BritManToo said:

And you're being a little 'naive' if you believe any of the anti-drug propaganda.

Half a dozen Big Macs re probably worse for your body.

Agreed, I dont eat BiG Macs or any other Mac-$hite TBH, odd Burger King Whopper meal maybe, however I was reffering to the poor humans who suffer under the Cartels at pain of death to grow, process and ship, like from field to Felicity's Tea & Tiffin party and the end users... and most of them end up throwing what they have up the Swanny...

 

Like the Weed dont do any harm... err Yes it does in so  many ways it messes people up

 

So as the Great Man himself said 'You can Not be serious?' 

[BritManToo]

4 hours ago, Lokie said:

however I was reffering to the poor humans who suffer under the Cartels at pain of death to grow, process and ship,

Probably no worse than a Nike shoe factory.