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08-12-2024
SANTO DOMINGO: Authorities in the Dominican Republican say cocaine discovered in the country’s largest-ever seizure was headed to Europe.
Hidden in a banana shipment, officials found 9,500kg of the drug at a port in the capital, Santo Domingo.
The cocaine was hidden in 320 bags with an estimated street value of $250 million (£196 million).
At least 10 people linked to the port are under investigation with early investigations showing the bananas had arrived from Guatemala, according to the National Drug Control Directorate.
Communications chief Carlos Denvers said: “Many unknown individuals tried to transfer the drugs to another container that would be shipped on a vessel to Belgium.”
The haul far exceeds the 2,580kg seizure made by Dominican authorities at the same port in 2006.
Monitoring agencies have reported that the Caribbean is resurfacing as a major drug trafficking route from Colombia to Europe.
A report last year found the use of cocaine is increasing in several western European countries including the UK, Belgium, France and Spain.
Europe accounted for 21% of the world’s cocaine users in 2020, according to a United Nations report.
Evidence suggests use of the drug is bringing dire health consequences, with recent data showing drug-poisoning deaths in England and Wales hit the highest level in 30 years, fueled by a 30% rise in fatalities involving cocaine.
Global cocaine production has reached record levels as demand rebounds following COVID lockdowns, a new report has found.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime said coca cultivation rose by 35% between 2020 and 2021 to record levels.
Findings suggest new hubs for trafficking have emerged in West and Central Africa.
The report also said traffickers were using international postal services more often to get drugs to consumers.
“Globally, the use of parcel and courier services increased significantly during the COVID-related lockdown due to restrictions on passenger flights,” the Global Report on Cocaine report said.
It noted a rise in West African countries in the use of “well established, globally operating postal services as well as smaller shopping companies” used to smuggle quantities of cocaine to Europe and beyond.
Overall, the report found Europe and North America are the largest markets for cocaine, followed by South and Central America and the Caribbean.
While the report said the markets in Africa and Asia were “still limited”, the UN’s Ghada Waly said the potential for the market to expand there was a dangerous reality.
Production increase was the result of an expansion in the cultivation of coca bush, as well as improvements in converting coca into powdered cocaine, the report found.
It added the outbreak of Covid-19 had a “disruptive” effect on drug markets as international travel was severely curtailed.
Demand for cocaine slumped as nightclubs and bars were shut during the pandemic lockdowns.
“However, the most recent data suggests this slump has had little impact on longer-term trends,” the report says. “The global supply of cocaine is at record levels.” (Int’l News Desk)
