Taking the war on drugs to the high seas
An armed garda on patrol at the luxury yacht 'Dances with Waves' in the harbour at Castletownbere in Co Cork
Monday February 23 2009
AT first glance, the figures are mind boggling. But then you realise they are no more than the average bad debt at the top of the pile in Anglo Irish Bank.
It is the potential harm to the health and welfare of the people that is causing major concern to the governments of Ireland and the six other nations that have banded together to combat the constant flow of cocaine to the streets of Europe.
Apart from its effects on regular users, it is also making millionaires of the growing network of traffickers who have quickly realised that in the drugs business, crime does pay -- and it pays handsomely.
Dealers with contacts in the wholesale market in the Netherlands can buy cocaine as cheaply as €8,000 a kilo. Using a middle-man, it can be picked up in the UK for about twice that price.
The real profit for those prepared to take the risk of being caught and also invest the initial outlay is when they have landed their cocaine shipment here and begin to dilute its purity level by cutting and mixing it -- ending up with possibly five times the amount landed for distribution on the streets.
At current prices of €70,000 per kilo of cocaine, it is reckoned that the dealers are collectively making profits of up to €8m a week.
This financial windfall is encouraging an increasing number of criminals to risk their own lives and kill their rivals without costing them a thought.
Few of the big traffickers tend to live long enough to draw the old age pension and many do not make it beyond their early 40s because of the heavy rate of attrition in the drug-fuelled warfare on the streets.
As the Colombian cartels step up production to meet the demand, the price of cocaine has fallen in Europe over the past decade.
The growth in the economy here during the boom years also meant that cocaine was no longer confined to the middle classes for their weekend parties.
The drug now transcends all social divisions and is being used, particularly at weekends, in every town in the country. This trend has been followed in the past two years by the growth in the usage of heroin.
Ireland was the first country to sign up to an initiative, which was launched by seven countries and centres around the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre-Narcotics, known as MAOC-N, and based in Lisbon.
Two of the 70 operations in which the Irish played a major part culminated in the seizure of 1.85 tonnes of cocaine on a yacht, called Dances with Waves, off the west Cork coast last year and another 1.5 tonnes in Dunlough Bay in the same region in 2007.
The operations are based on an assessment of intelligence gathered by the authorities in Ireland, the UK, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy and Portugal.
The Garda and the Customs Service both have full time representatives in Lisbon while the Naval Service sends an officer to the centre when required.
In an article in the next edition of 'Signal', a magazine produced by the representative association for officers in the Defence Forces, RACO, the commander of Naval Service fleet operations, Gene Ryan gives some of the inside story behind Operation Seabight, which resulted in last year's cocaine seizure, off the Cork coastline.
He reveals that Seabight was launched not long after the 60ft sloop, Dances with Waves, left the Caribbean.
While refusing to discuss operational matters, Mr Ryan does not dispute press reports that the vessel was almost certainly tracked on the US side by a P-3 Orion surveillance aircraft, working off ground intelligence.
As the craft neared Europe, the Irish Independent reported, it was monitored by an Air Corps Casa surveillance aircraft, which fixed its position for a boarding by the Naval Service.
Mr Ryan says the captains of the LE Niamh and the LE Roisin were made aware of the operation two days before it was executed.
"The level of confidentiality on operations such as this is high. On board the two Naval vessels, only the captains had details of the impending operation and all satellite, high frequency and internet communications were withdrawn."
In rough six-metre seas, a boarding party from the LE Niamh was lowered onto Naval Seariders and sent to intercept the sloop.
Visibility was down to 500 metres and the boarding party had to rely on its training. But it caught the crew by surprise and the boat was surrendered.
It was not until the vessel was examined at Castletownbere harbour that it was confirmed that MAOC-N and its representatives had captured one of the biggest cocaine hauls in European history.
- Tom Brady
