Cartel Connection in Cocaine Smuggling Trial
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The island’s largest cocaine smuggling operation is believed to be the work of Latin American cartels, according to testimony in the trial of a 44-year-old business owner accused of bringing 156 kg of the deadly drug into Cyprus.
The defendant pleaded not guilty, and claims he was threatened by cartel drug dealers after importing the generators from Chile. He is being kept in Nicosia Central Prisons.
The cocaine was hidden in two power generators when the authorities uncovered them in a Limassol bonded warehouse. The warehouse owner, aged 53, was also arrested. The defendant’s 44-year-old business partner has an arrest warrant on his head and has not yet been located.
The drug are worth 7.3 million Euros on the street, and were due for re-export, giving police valuable information in tracking down the ultimate recipients and destination country.
The record-breaking find of smuggled drugs in Cyprus has triggered questions about how it got past customs checks at Limassol Port, and just how much cocaine has been trafficked in the same way.
The drug squad in Limassol got a tip, not from Interpol, but from within their contacts on the island, a police source told CyprusNewsReport.com.
Drug crimes in Cyprus
There is an average of 1000 drug-related cases per year on the island, according to statistics from 2011-2015. Limassol and Nicosia account for half of all the cases.
Most drug cases are linked with cannabis, there is an average of 768 cases per year. The deadly and highly-addictive cocaine and heroin represent a much smaller percentage on average, just 66 cases per year for cocaine-related cases and 20 heroin-related cases. The closest comparison can be made with Greece, which has 1200 cocaine-linked cases per year, far more than Cyprus.
What’s really going on?
Remember, these statistics can only measure the number of cases that are actually investigated. The real level of drug-related crimes is not known, but if the level of police corruption and organised crime is factored in, it could be far higher than the statistics are showing. If police corruption is as extensive as it’s thought to be, then the actual number of drug crimes could be far higher.
Although the authorities have a strong will to get rid of police corruption, it is a world-wide phenomenon, said police chief Zacharias Chrysostomou on August 4th, the same day the cocaine stash was uncovered.
A chronic disease like police corruption can’t be cured overnight, said Justice Minister Ionas Nicolaou.
The police cover for each other in ‘fraternal solidarity’, he adds.
However, the corrupt ones are prosecuted, fired or removed from their duties, said the minister. For the first time, the police academy provides training against corruption and psychological tests to find those with psychological weaknesses leading to corruption, said Nicolaou.
Importantly, whistleblowers have more protection under the new measures taken in the last year or so, according to the minister.
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