Sniffy customers

Drug-traffickers are expanding their operations in Europe, despite the best efforts of the police.

Europe’s cocaine market is served by an evolving network of trade routes. Shipments commonly head for the Iberian Peninsula, either hidden in legitimate container vessels or on board creaking old “motherships”, which loiter out at sea while nimbler craft bring the packages onshore. The traditional hotspot is the north Atlantic coast of Spain, though in recent years traffickers have also targeted Barcelona and Valencia to stay ahead of the police. Some three-quarters of European seizures take place in Spain and Portugal, which also have some of the highest rates of consumption on the continent.

Like any sensible business, drug-traffickers spread their risk: large shipments are complemented with little-and-often supply lines, including parcel post and human mules. That particular ruse has been upset by an advertising campaign run by the police, warning potential mules of the severity of trafficking sentences. Some still risk it, but they now command a fee of around $6,000, compared with the $2,000 they used to do it for. That is enough to make the route unprofitable, police reckon.

But as one route closes, another opens up. In the past four years customs officers have spotted a sharp rise in the amount of cocaine being smuggled into Europe via West Africa. Britain and America have beefed up their presence in the region, but the traffickers may already have planned their next move: a new supply route was emerging in the Balkans.

In Britain, Europe’s biggest consumer of narcotics, the Home Office reckons that drugs are brought in by about 300 major importers, who pass them to 30,000 wholesalers and then to 70,000 street dealers. Cocaine, meaning both the sniffable powder and smokable “rocks” of crack cocaine (which can be made using a simple microwave), accounts for about half the value of this industry, being less widely taken than cannabis but much pricier.

Some rare light was shed on the business by a Home Office study in which 222 drug-dealers were interviewed in prison by analyst from Matrix Knowledge Group, a consultancy, and the London School of Economics. One dealing partnership, based in London and Spain, bought cocaine from a Colombian importer in 10 kg bundles, which they sold to retailers using an employee whom they paid £500 ($700) per transaction.

A second employee, paid £250 a day, would collect money from the buyers and pass it to a third member of staff, who would count it (processing up to £220,000 each day). Other employees would pay the Colombians and smuggle the rest of the cash, on their bodies, back to Spain.

Most drug businesses are forced to stay small and simple to evade the police. Only one dealer claimed to be part of an organization of more than 100 people, and a fifth were classified by researchers as sole traders. Fear of being uncovered also hampers recruitment: most dealers stuck to family and friends, and people from the same ethnic group, when hiring associates.

Times may at last be getting harder for cocaine-dealers. Shortly before Christmas, the wholesale price in Britain shot up to £40,000 per kilo, the highest in years. Better policing was one cause; another was the slump of sterling. European retailers’ margins have been chipped away. To protect their profits, dealers are diluting what they sell. A decade ago, average street-level purity was about 60%; police say it is now nearer 30%. People think there is a lot of cocaine around, but two thirds of it isn’t cocaine at all.

That would be fine if the remainder were talcum powder. But in the past few years dealers have turned to pharmaceutical cutting agents such as benzocaine, a topical anesthetic, which mimic the effects of cocaine and may be more harmful. Dealers call such agents “magic” because of their effects on profits. “Grey traders”, who knowingly sell such chemicals to dealers, are starting to be convicted.

Educating drug-takers about what is getting up their noses may lower demand.

By far the best way of reducing the harm that drugs can do is to convince people not to take them. Spraying crops, seizing shipments and arresting dealers can drive up prices and create temporary shortages. But it does not stop drug use. Addicts simply pay more for crummier product or switch to other, often more harmful, substances. Cocaine-takers may move to powder amphetamine or crystal meth; heroin addicts experiment with oxycodone.

Most attempts to reduce drug demand are aimed at 11- to 14-year-olds. The principle is that children should be reached while they are still fairly pliable and before they begin to take drugs-not just the hard stuff but alcohol, marijuana and tobacco. The hope is that they will develop a broad aversion to harmful substances that will stay with them through their late teens and early 20s, when drug use peaks.

Notes: Phrasal verb is a group of words that is used like a verb and consists of a verb with an adverb or preposition after it.

Phrasal verbs are a common and important part of English. They are not difficult to learn and use, but you cannot always guess the meaning of a phrasal verb from its verb and particle (i.e. an adverb or a preposition). In addition, it is necessary to be aware that the same phrasal verb can have more than one meaning. The verb “take off”, for example, has several meanings: you can take off (remove) your coat; you can take off (imitate) a person; and a plane can take off (leave the ground).

“Britain and America have beefed up their presence in the region, but the traffickers may already have planned their next move.”

to beef up = to improve something, to make something more important, stronger