The mad rush by gangsters to get in-demand drugs into Europe during a pandemic
just isn't stopping. In fact smugglers are working hard to make up lost ground
with hashish in cupcake machines, and more cocaine in bananas
The Mob Reporter here with news of how international narco cartels are
shifting to European ports further east as ports in the west of the continent
face stiffer and stiffer police intervention.
Let me tell you about it
Stopping the flow of drugs is a lot like grabbing at a balloon: when you squeeze it
in one spot it just bulges out in another. In other words, enforcement in one jurisdiction
seems like it merely displaces the problem to somewhere else. That seems to be at play this
week as large seizures were made at European ports a little further east and further south
than those typically associated with large-scale narco-trafficking busts
Let's first go to Greece. The port of Piraeus is the main passage to Greece. It's a bustling joint
just outside Athens, the second largest passenger port in the world. It markets itself as the port
of three continents because it is situated near the crossroads of Europe. Asia and Africa. Now that
slogan will be as attractive to traffickers as it is to legitimate global businesses
It is here authorities were inspecting one of the most innocent sounding shipments — cupcake machines
The ship arrived on April 14th after a stop in Lebanon, which has been a traditional source of
hash. An inspection revealed a metal tank inside that seemed unrelated to the bakery equipment
A small hole was drilled to allow a probe camera to peer inside and its secret was revealed
Removing a metal panel uncovered a manhole that was welded shut
Forcing that open gave inspectors access to a specially built hidden storage space
filled with wrapped bags. Authorities yanked out 129 nylon bags and 282 bulk packages of hash. It
weighed in at almost four and a half tons. Police estimated street value at 40 million dollars
This load was doomed by an unusual mix of international intervention from law enforcement
Officials in both the United States and in Saudi Arabia. After the packages arrived in Greece
it was supposed to be moved west by land. The container was scheduled to be transshipped
on a train with a final destination in Slovakia. Western Europe is considered the world's largest
and most profitable hash market. Smugglers are also targeting a more modest seaport in Ploče, Croatia
on the Adriatic seacoast. It's just a hundred miles across the water from the coast of Italy
This is where Croatian police seized 575 kilos of coke found hidden under a false floor that was
welded into the base of a shipping container. This container was used to import bananas from Ecuador
Police describe it as extremely pure and estimated its street value at roughly 70 million dollars
Investigators secretly waited two weeks for its owners to show up and collect it but
they never did. They seemed to know it was under surveillance, suggesting an inside man at the port
Who's a good boy.
It was one of the largest coke seizures in Croatia, but just one of three recent finds at the port
Authorities have been giving closer scrutiny to shipments arriving here from South America lately after two similar smuggling attempts were uncovered
There have been some arrests in the previous raids, seen here: one in February and one in March
Those shipments were much smaller, however. Neither reached 100 kilos
Curiously, the company that had ordered the legal goods in the containers — the bananas — was
owned by a former politician but investigators went out of their way to say that the company
had nothing to do with the smuggling. All three shipments arrived from South America
I've spoken here before about the use of banana shipments to mask the movement of coke out of
South America. I'll link to that video here and in the description below. And just as with the
Greek bust, Croatian cops don't think this load was destined for a domestic market. For starters, had
the container cleared customs in Croatia, it was scheduled to be shipped to the country next door
Bosnia Herzegovina, and from there likely destined to be distributed to western Europe
Finding these larger shipments of products in Croatia and Greece seems part of a reorganization
of shipping routes after massive seizures recently in Germany, Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands
The pandemic, meanwhile, has made life erratic for smugglers as well as everyone else. n response to
the disruption in shipping and travel, the loads being found are much larger than usual, suggesting
that more limited options for international shipping is forcing the traffickers to put
more of their eggs into fewer baskets.
[seagulls squawk]
It is likely that both the port in Croatia and the port in Greece were chosen partly because of increased
heat from authorities in many of western Europe's ports
and also because the detection technology is not as sophisticated
Both ports rely on intelligence and spot checks and good old sniffer dogs
Whereas many western ports use imaging scanners like giant x-ray machines that
can peer deep into containers looking for unusual forms or holes that shouldn't be there
So far, in both cases, there have been no arrests but international investigations are underway
Oh, they might well discover who was ordering it and who was shipping it
It is hard to imagine it will do a whole lot to stem the flow
Until a wider more comprehensive solution is found, it will still be grabbing and squeezing a balloon
If it isn't bulging in Calabria, Rotterdam, Portsmouth or in Antwerp or Gibraltar
then it will start bulging in Ploče and Piraeus — and who knows what other ports
Local media in Croatia report that a mobile x-ray
machine has been ordered for the port at Ploče and it's on its way
Just imagine if there is something extra hidden in the bottom of that shipment
Thanks for watching