A clampdown on cocaine smuggling through large Belgian and Dutch ports is likely to lead drug gangs to seek alternative routes into Europe including landing large consignments off the southwest coast of Ireland, a senior garda has said.
Assistant Garda Commissioner Eileen Foster said it was only reasonable to assume that South American cartels would consider that option given the increased security at ports including Rotterdam and Antwerp.
“The natural progression for cocaine smugglers, given greater security in some large European ports, would be to look at alternative routes – we don’t have any intelligence on specific plans to look at Ireland but obviously we have to be mindful given our strategic position.”
Foster pointed out that, given the main transatlantic shipping route passes off the southwest coast, Cork and Kerry were strategically located as one of the first European landfalls.
She noted some of the successes of gardaí, customs and the Naval Service over the last 30 years in foiling smuggling operations off the southwest.
“We have some large cocaine seizures here since the Sea Mist [ship in 1996] – the Gemeos in Kinsale; Lucky Day; Dances with Waves; and Makayabella off the west Cork coast. Plus of course we’ve had big cannabis seizures like the Karma and the Posidonia and the Brime off Kerry,” she said.
Foster was speaking after an event publicising the Garda Coastal Watch in Castletownbere in west Cork on Wednesday. It was attended by senior officers from the Garda Southern Region with responsibility for drug interception in the Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Clare and Tipperary Garda divisions.
The route from South America taken by the MV Matthew before its capture off Ireland. Map: Paul Scott
According to one garda source, increased investment by law enforcement agencies at Antwerp, which handles over 13 million shipping containers annually, and Rotterdam which handles over 14 million, has forced cartels to look at alternative smuggling routes.
A member of the Rotterdam Port Police said trying to stop cocaine in container traffic can be like “looking for a needle in a haystack” but there had been considerable success over the last five years.
In 2021, 71 tonnes of cocaine were seized in Rotterdam and 116 tonnes were seized in Antwerp in 2023. Over the past two years Rotterdam reported a 40 per cent drop in such seizures, and Antwerp a 60 per cent drop, as the cartels sought alternative approaches in response.
Earlier this year, Europol warned that cocaine production had reached unprecedented levels in Latin American, supplying substantial quantities to the European Union where there has been “no signs of stagnation” in demand.
“Criminal networks are finding new… transportation methods, concealment techniques and trafficking routes,” Europol said in a statement.
Chief supt Vincent O’Sullivan, who has responsibility for almost 1,200km of coastline around Co Cork, said those with local knowledge have a vital role to play.
“Cork county has become of the most strategically significant locations in Ireland in the fight against international drug trafficking due to its extensive coastline, deep water harbours and direct access to Atlantic shipping routes linking Europe with South America and West Africa,” he said.
“In recent years some of the largest drugs seizures in Irish history have been detected off the Cork coastline including the interception of the MV Matthew where over 2.2 tonnes of cocaine valued at €157 million was seized in a large international operation.”
O’Sullivan urged people to be vigilant and said very often what might seem innocuous can prove critical. He offered the example of gardaí receiving information from a person in west Cork that led to the apprehension of those involved in the MV Matthew attempt.