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Old October 22nd, 2008 #90
Robert Bandanza
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Default Gardai to join war on African cocaine traffickers

EU JUSTICE ministers including Ireland's Dermot Ahern are to declare war on west African cocaine traffickers.

The move follows the disclosure that the west African gangs supplied Europe with cocaine shipments with a total street value of €18bn in the past year.

Gardai are to join with other European police forces to target the gangs in a co-ordinated approach to tackling the cocaine crisis within the EU.

The new initiative will be given the political go-ahead at a meeting of justice and home affairs ministers in Luxembourg on Friday.

A spokesman for Mr Ahern said last night that the minister was gravely concerned at the extent of the trafficking and pledged that Ireland would play its role in the new crackdown.

The operation will be intelligence-led and involve close co-operation between the inter- national agencies.

The European cocaine problem has worsened as a result of a declining market in the US.

There are currently estimated to be 3.5 million cocaine users in the EU.

The shipments being smuggled in by the west Africans are said to have a wholesale value of €1.8bn, which converts into €18bn at street level.

Meanwhile, a new study here has revealed that family and friends have usurped the role of the shady drug dealer on the corner, with half of cocaine users supplied by those closest to them.

The research also revealed higher than expected use among lower-middle and working class groups.

Double

Over a five-year period, cocaine use has almost doubled, with 5pc of those aged between 15-64, or around 145,000 people, admitting ever having used the drug in the 2006/7 study, up from 3pc in the first survey in 2002/3.

Nearly one in four of those surveyed knows someone who takes cocaine. The second All Ireland Drugs Prevalence Survey, commissioned by the National Advisory Committee on Drugs (NACD), found the number of people getting cocaine through family and friends had risen to 49pc.

"It certainly shows a certain attitude to cocaine," the NACD's Mairead Lyons said. "I think the fact that people are using it so socially perpetrates the myth that it is a harmless drug when we know absolutely and very concretely that it is a very dangerous drug."

Minister of State for Drugs John Curran said "public education" was important to raise awareness of the health risks linked to the drug.

More than 80pc of older adults got the drug in friends' houses. One in 10 cocaine users reported failing in efforts to stop taking the drug, while a further 8pc reported stopping as part of a rehab programme.

http://www.independent.ie/national-n...s-1504975.html