Lack of staff and poor Organisation: Uruguay is not able to cope with the challenges of the global drug trade. In Uruguay is becoming more and more important for the smuggling of drugs.
“Uruguay is not in the matter well,” said the head of the Supreme customs authority of Uruguay, Enrique Canon a few days as a reaction to the discovery of 600 kilos of cocaine in a plane. It was on the way from Uruguay and has been intercepted in France. The 4.5 tons of cocaine, which also on Friday (2.8.) in Hamburg one in Uruguay-Laden container ship were fished, cost Canon then his Post. He stepped back.
This 4.5 tons of the deadly white powder with a market value of about one billion euros. There has never been ensured in Germany, at a stroke, so much cocaine. But it was not the first Time this year, a larger amount of cocaine from Uruguay to the port of Hamburg was seized. In April, the German customs discovered 440 kilograms of cocaine in rice bags loaded containers. According to the transport papers, the Container was in Uruguay came on Board the transport ship.
The port of Montevideo in Uruguay. Tab controls make it the drug mafia easily.
The Switzerland Of South America
Uruguay is the smallest Spanish-speaking country in South America, and enjoys the reputation of being a prosperous, peaceful and secure oasis in a continent that knows a lot of political and social unrest. “Uruguay was in the past, along with countries such as Costa Rica or Chile, rather than a stable and secure country. But this Reputation no longer reflects today’s reality,” says Chris Dalby, Managing Editor at Insight Crime, a U.S.-based journalist network, which specialises in the topic of organised crime in Latin America.
Since the country has no acute problem of Violence, like many other countries in the Region. But this has also led to a certain negligence. The border controls were compared with other Latin American countries is insufficient. This will now be exploited by both Bolivian and Brazilian drug cartels, as well as their customers in Europe, says Dalby in an interview with DW.
Cocaine glut
To make matters worse, the demand for cocaine is on the rise worldwide. According to the latest UN drug report, the production reached in the year 2017, a historical high. At the time 2000 tons of cocaine have been made. This was an increase of 25 percent compared to the previous year, the report of the UNODC, the United Nations office for drugs and crime.
“This cocaine has to go somewhere,” says Chris Dalby. The drug dealers would increasingly make use of so far less-used export routes and transit countries from South America. This also includes Uruguay count. “For at least ten years, the Bolivian cocaine comes through Uruguay to the European market. The authorities in Uruguay were 2013 attention to the Problem. But the Problem of perceiving does not mean that something has been done,” says Chris Dalby.
Fragmentation of the global drug trade
Also, the global drug trade itself is changing and evolving. The time of the drug lords, old-style, the is from cultivation, processing to delivery to the end customer, all of the stations of the drug trade in a Hand-controlled over, says Dalby. In its place is a more complex manufacturing and distribution process, in which many smaller and in your area of specialized groups are involved. “The global drug trade is fragmented with many smaller players that operate independently of each other,” says Dalby. And also Uruguay now plays a role.
The country has developed in recent years into a hub of global drug trafficking, the many criminal gangs, both in South America and in Europe, working closely together. “Uruguay is now in the spotlight of the international drug trade,” says expert Dalby.
Alleged receiver in Italy
Can handle the drugs mafia, the loss of a valuable shipment, like the one in Hamburg, in the value of one billion euros just like that? “It definitely hurts,” says Chris Dalby. Due to the current division of work are not the drug mafia in South America, the loss will be, but the recipient. “The recipient is in Europe now must bear the loss. This is probably the Italian Mafia, ‘Ndrangheta from Calabria, but also criminal organisations in the Balkans and in Russia.” This tend to be reasonable presumptions, Dalby. Who were exactly at the receiver, one cannot say a hundred percent. “We don’t know order how much cocaine these gangs in South America. Probably, the Fund is in Hamburg, just a drop in an ocean.”
Plantations in the jungle: Colombia is responsible for approximately 70 percent of the world’s cocaine production.
The need for action in Uruguay
Uruguay must face the challenges of the international network of drug trafficking, the Uruguayan security adviser Robert Parrado: “This country has always been a transit country for drugs”. The biggest weak point is the lack of training and lack of specialized personnel, but Parrado said in an interview with DW. “This massive cocaine find in Hamburg revealed the serious shortcomings of border and customs controls in Uruguay,” says Parrado. The Problem had been neglected by the policy but for years to come. The country does not have a special unit devoted to using specially trained forces of the enlightenment of serious crimes, such as drugs, weapons or human trafficking, as Parrado.
The expert from Insight Crime in Washington, but cautiously optimistic: “The authorities have admitted in Uruguay, and found that their controls are inadequate. A sign also of the immediate resignation of the Director of the customs body, Enrique Canon,” says Chris Dalby is. This gives the experts reason to hope that Uruguay finally picks up the fight against drugs.