The Revenue Commissioners have said they are strongly supportive of the European Ports Alliance, which was launched in Antwerp this afternoon in an effort to stop criminal gangs infiltrating large EU ports against the backdrop of a huge increase in cocaine smuggling into Europe.
The initiative brings together EU member states, ports, law enforcement agencies, customs officials and the private sector.
A joint declaration stated: "Criminal organisations target innocent people, including employees of public and private port entities, by means of corruption, intimidation and extreme violence, in order to infiltrate the ports for conducting criminal activities."
In a statement this evening, Revenue said it "strongly supports the European Ports Alliance initiative."
The statement added: "Effective co-operation and collaboration across all national and international stakeholders including key port stakeholders is necessary for an effective and impactful response to the threat of drug trafficking and organised crime."
The alliance was launched in the face of a huge increase in cocaine smuggling into Europe by South American drugs cartels.
Antwerp alone saw 120 tonnes of cocaine smuggled through its port in 2023.
The European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson, who co-launched the Alliance, said 50% of all homicides in the EU were now drug-related.
According to a Europol report last year, highly organised criminal networks had become adept at bringing cocaine and other drugs through large European ports - mainly Antwerp, Rotterdam and Hamburg - by corrupting port staff and lorry drivers through bribery and the threat of violence.
The report stated that "criminal networks arrange the infiltration of ports and coordinate local networks of corrupted port insiders to organise the passage of containers containing illicit goods into the EU.
"For this, they rely on worldwide networks of cells with trusted members, or use dedicated service providers."
Criminals analyse insider data to select container shipments that are less likely to be inspected and then extract drug consignments from ports by stealing container reference (or PIN) codes, the report said.
"Relying largely on two factors – a corrupted logistics company employee to provide the reference code and a driver to pick up the container with the reference code – there is no need for physical presence within the port area."
Europol has recommended restricting access to data on a need-to-know basis, so that fewer port staff can access container reference codes.
Further preventive measures could include logging and tracing database access to sensitive data, as well as introducing warning systems to detect irregularities and increased checks of truck driver credentials at the terminals.
However, Europol acknowledges that the expansion and increased productivity at large European ports through automation have boosted opportunities for criminal networks to exploit both the geographical scale of the ports, and the relative lack of human presence and physical inspections.
"The sheer volume of containers (over 90 million) handled each year, and the low percentage (between 2% and 10%) that can be physically inspected, makes detection of illicit goods extremely challenging," the Europol report concluded.
Europol says the corruption of officials at ports is the key enabler of criminal gangs.
"This includes port workers and personnel of shipping companies, freight forwarders/shipping agents, importers, transport companies, terminals, security companies, law enforcement and customs.
"Bribery fees may reach hundreds of thousands of euros. The highest fees are paid to essential links in the extraction chain, often crane operators, planners or employees providing access to information via IT systems. Coordinators of extraction teams receive between 7% to 15 % of the value of the illicit load."
The European Ports Alliance, launched under the Belgian presidency of the EU, is aimed at bringing together public and private partners, promoting best practice at ports, such as ensuring prompt reporting of suspicious incidents and to help improve security at South American ports, such as Guayaquil in Ecuador.
The initiative aims to beef up cooperation between law enforcement, customs private stakeholders with the support of Europol, and to strengthen risk analysis at ports.
The ports alliance will attempt to strengthen anti-corruption measures, such as the creation of a confidential channel for employees to signal potential pressures.
However, Michael O'Sullivan, the former head of the precursor to the Garda Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau and who was based at the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre Narcotics (MAOC-N) in Portugal, cast doubt on the ability of European authorities to influence drug operations in Latin America.
Mr O’Sullivan told RTÉ News: "In South America it's a different world. If the guys visit your house and tell you there’s a container they're going to put stuff in, you’re not going to say anything, because the police are corrupt, and the port authorities are corrupt. And nobody is going to step up against these people."
Mr O’Sullivan estimated that at least €13 billion of South American cocaine was being consumed in Europe annually.
"The drug gangs, the criminal gangs, the bank robbers, the fraudsters - they're seeing this and they're seeing that you've got a huge consumer base [in Europe]. It’s the only game in town if you want to make money."
He said the consumption of cocaine in Ireland mirrored that of mainland Europe.
"The vast majority, if not 99%, of people using cocaine are doing it because they want to and because they can, and because they have the money and they're partying, and they're going out on a Friday night.
"This money feeds back to the gangs in Europe and the gangs in Colombia with the result that they make greater profits, and they increase production."
Having spent time working in law enforcement at Rotterdam Port, Mr O’Sullivan agreed that corruption, intimidation and violence had become intrinsic to the operation of the port and its hinterland.
"The answer to it is intelligence, working closely with the [US Drugs Enforcement Agency], figuring out what stuff is in that container or who's putting it into the container."
Officials say that some of the cocaine landed at big European ports will find its way to Ireland, because of the involvement of Irish networks in the shipment.
Since Brexit, the bulk of sea-borne freight moving from the single market to Ireland avoids the UK landbridge and goes straight to Rosslare or Dublin.
Because it is intra-EU trade, say officials, there will be fewer inspections.
Europol says that increasing surveillance and security at major ports will simply encourage gangs to target smaller ones.
"The development of the EU project to link 328 ports, including secondary ports, to the comprehensive Trans-European Transport Network by 2030 could reinforce this trend," the Europol report said.
