US fears Ireland is drug traffic haven
Cannabis coast Report says smuggling is channelled via remote inlets
Special report: drugs in Britain
David Hencke and Rob Evans
Saturday November 4, 2000
The Guardian
Ireland is becoming a key transit centre in supplying Britain's growing number of drug users with thousands of kilograms of smuggled hashish, cannabis and cocaine, according to an intelligence agency report obtained by the Guardian.
Drug smugglers are using yachts, trawlers and cargo ships to land huge quantities of hashish and cocaine destined for Britain and Europe in remote coves and inlets on the west coast of Ireland. Ships make for Ireland's west coast from Panama, Venezuela, Morocco and Pakistan, taking advantage of the lightly policed waters of the Irish Republic in the south west of the country.
The report reveals that the Irish authorities are struggling to stop the smuggling and admits that the area chosen is "nearly impossible to patrol". The Bere peninsula in Co Cork - thought to be one of the main centres of the smuggling operation - is better known as a remote tourist spot for its prehistoric stone circles, and opportunities for pony trekking and sea angling. It has many small inlets and beaches where drugs could easily be unloaded without detection, only one small port, Castletownbere, and a scattering of villages.
Ireland's growing role in drug smuggling is revealed in an intelligence report released by the US drug enforcement administration to the Guardian under the US Freedom of Information Act. The report says: "Ireland's isolated coasts are ideal for shielding illicit offload operations. The country's internal role as a transit point will accelerate as drug trafficking organisations continue to favour using the island for continental and Britain bound cocaine and hashish shipments."
It points out that vast quantities of hashish seized in recent years "point toward Ireland's growing role as a transit point for hashish destined for the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe. Hashish shipments are imported into Ireland by recreational yachts or fishing trawlers, often directly from Morocco.
"Once in Ireland, the hashish can be moved more easily to other European destinations, considering Ireland's inclusion in the European Union. According to the US defence attache's office in Dublin, cannabis transited through Ireland also may be destined for North America." The report says that ships target Ireland because of the limited role taken by customs, the Irish navy and the Garda to tackle the problem.
"The ministry of justice is proposing legislation that would give naval authorities limited drug enforcement powers. At present, the Irish navy may detain suspect vessels for safety reasons or for fishery protection, but they are not allowed to make arrests."
The Irish were alerted to the problem in 1995 when the Garda seized over 15,000 kilograms of hashish from a container in Urlingford, Co Kilkenny. The street value of the hashish was thought to be about £16m, and the Garda found it had been brought ashore on the Bere peninsula. The ship involved - known as both the Tropic Moon and the Master Star - came from Pakistan. In November last year customs officials seized a con verted fishing trawler, the Posidonia, off the west Cork coast with an estimated £15m of cannabis resin on board. Three British men were arrested and charged with smuggling offences.
The cocaine trade is also growing following a series of seizures in 1996 and 1998. One shipment was only discovered after the trawler - originally from Venezuela - sought the safety of Cork harbour after a storm blew up. The crew of the ship admitted the cocaine had been airdropped to the trawler while she was sailing the Caribbean. The other shipment was discovered in a raid at Kinsale, further along the coast.
The growing drugs trade has led the Garda to set up an anti-smuggling operation, sharing intelligence with the Royal Ulster Constabulary, and Strathclyde and Dumfries to halt the movement of drugs across the Irish sea to Scotland. Ironically the three biggest successful hauls this year at Stranraer have involved Scottish drug dealers smuggling hashish and ecstasy tablets from the mainland to Belfast.
Last night the Garda described the US findings as "rubbish". A spokesman said: "We have had spectacular successes recently in seizing large hauls of drugs which have been shipped to Ireland. We do have an extremely rugged coastline with numerous inlets on the west of Ireland but we don't believe they can be used that easily by boats because of the rough Atlantic seas. We have, however, set up an operation to share strategies to tackle European drug smuggling and are cooperating with police forces in the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe."
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