Drugs
More and more cocaine seized in the port of Hamburg
The amount of cocaine seized in the port of Hamburg has tripled. photo
© Marcus Brandt/dpa
All imaginable goods are handled in the port of Hamburg – including drugs. More and more cocaine is finding its way to Europe through the gateway to the world. Politicians want to take countermeasures.
“It can be assumed that there will be massive pressure on cocaine supplies from the South American production and transit countries, which is due to a continuing strong growth in the sales market in Europe,” the Senate wrote in its response. “As the third largest seaport in Europe, the port of Hamburg is becoming the focus of perpetrator groups.”
In order to counter the dangers posed by internationally organized drug crime at all levels, security authorities and the port industry joined forces last October to form a “Safe Harbor Alliance”. At the same time, the police, customs and Federal Criminal Police Office are pursuing preventive approaches in addition to repressive and operational-tactical measures in the EU-funded project “Infiltration of North Sea ports by organized crime structures” (INOK).
Just last week, Mayor Peter Tschentscher, Interior Senator Andy Grote (both SPD) and the port industry presented a campaign for port workers that is intended to illustrate the danger of being involved in criminal activities through drug cartels’ recruitment attempts. There is also a portal through which tips can be given anonymously.
More international cooperation to combat drug smuggling
International cooperation in the fight against drug trafficking and organized crime should also be strengthened. On Tuesday, at the invitation of Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD), the interior ministers from Belgium, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands will meet in Hamburg as part of the “Coalition of European countries against serious and organized crime”.
Representatives of the European Union and other international bodies and organizations also take part in the meeting in the Maritime Museum. “We want to step up the fight against the international drug cartels even more,” said Faeser to the German Press Agency. Drug-related crime has triggered a “massive spiral of violence” in other countries and this needs to be prevented in Germany. At the ports, close controls, high vigilance and effective corruption prevention are necessary for the companies located there. At the same time, those behind it must be prosecuted, financial flows uncovered and criminal networks dismantled, said Faeser – “that’s why we are acting together with European and South American partners and combining our measures.”
Faeser refers to successful searches
The fact that significantly more cocaine was recently seized in the port of Hamburg also shows “that our authorities are checking more and finding more,” said the SPD politician. She also referred to over 1,700 executed arrest warrants from the so-called EncroChat proceedings against organized crime. The crypto messenger service “EncroChat” was initially considered indecipherable and was therefore widespread in the criminal scene. The police in France and the Netherlands were able to crack the software in spring 2020. More than 20 million secret chat messages were intercepted. This led to numerous arrests across Europe. Mostly it was about drug trafficking.