Law enforcement across Europe is fighting tirelessly to stop the increasing amount of cocaine crossing the Atlantic from South America.

According to the Maritime Analysis Operations Centre (MAOC), which monitors transatlantic drug trafficking, 100 suspected drug ships were not stopped last year because European authorities did not have sufficient means to intercept them. Europe has the data on drug-laden ships crossing the Atlantic, but still lacks the available interdiction assets, according to MAOC director Sjoerd Top. Up to 600 ships are monitored by the MAOC every day, while record amounts of cocaine are produced in South America.

In the United Kingdom, 117 tonnes of cocaine were consumed last year, according to the UK National Crime Agency. Meanwhile, the number of cocaine-related deaths has increased tenfold since 2011.

The drugs are generally shipped in large container ships to European ports, such as Rotterdam and Antwerp. Security at these ports has been tightened, causing smugglers to seek alternative routes. Many offload bundles of cocaine from a “mother” ship to a smaller “daughter” vessel, with which they are transported to land. Through this method, tonnes of cocaine have been intercepted at sea in multiple seizures of one or two tonnes in the last six months.

But the cartels are relentless and are increasingly targeting Ireland, the only European country with an open border with the UK, as a back door. Ireland has almost 2,000 miles of very vulnerable coastline, many of it ideal for smuggling, with hundreds of isolated entrances.

The country’s defence forces help fight cartels, but Ireland has the lowest defence spending in the EU, only 0.2% of GDP. The Irish Naval Service has eight ships, but normally only two can be carried out at sea, due to a shortage of seamen. Ireland has 132,000 square miles of water under its jurisdiction, 16% of European waters, and only two fully operational vessels. According to former naval commander Eugene Ryan, this makes no sense.

The same applies to air support. The Irish defence forces are supposed to provide the helicopters to help protect the coast, but sometimes they don’t have a single one available that can do the job.

The drug highway crosses the Atlantic and one of the first countries it reaches is Ireland. The Irish government claims to maintain a continuous presence and surveillance within its maritime domain. It stresses that defence funding will increase by 600 million euros in four years, an increase of 55%, and significant initiatives will be implemented, which have also resulted in the stabilisation of the Naval Service force.

Drug trafficking is a growing problem throughout Europe, and those leading the fight against it say that all countries must do much more to stop it.

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