The EU has improved our capacity to fight against organised crime and drug trafficking. It’s an area where Ireland has been leading the way; we were founding members of a specialist centre called the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre – Narcotics. It’s an international organisation set up in 2007 to deal with drug smuggling in the Atlantic. The Centre was created by seven countries – Ireland, Portugal, UK, Netherlands, France, Spain and Italy. It’s based in Lisbon and several Garda and Customs Liaison Officers from Ireland as well as police and customs agents from the other member states work full-time at the centre.
It’s the first time we’ve had a coordinated point to tackle the smuggling of drugs into Europe by sea and air from Latin America and West Africa. We share intelligence with other countries, coordinate rapid air and sea operations and make the best use of law enforcement and defence resources across the member states. The end result is a huge improvement in Europe’s ability to tackle drug smuggling. Since September 2007, the agency has been responsible for seizing approximately €11 billion worth of cocaine (over 40,000 kilos) including the record-breaking shipment bound for Ireland that was seized off the Cork coastline in November 2008.