Another success for the Customs Department
Congratulations are in order for the Customs Department, which this week intercepted the largest shipment of drugs ever found in Malta.
Over 600 kilos of cocaine, worth almost €70 million, were found hidden inside a container at the Malta Freeport.
This was not the only case in past weeks and months, but the magnitude of this particular shipment makes this case somewhat special. The drugs found this week were worth as much as all the other narcotics seizures made during the past 12 months.
The successes registered by the department did not come about by coincidence. Over the past few years, heavy investment has been made in new and sophisticated equipment and training.
The department is today equipped with imaging equipment that can see not only inside the containers but also inside their contents. In this case, the pallets in which the drugs were hidden were observed to be denser than their description. Containers are also weighed to see if any ‘extra’ items are hidden inside. The department also receives and shares information with foreign agencies, and its relatively new canine section has also proved to be indispensable in sniffing out illicit shipments.
The Customs Department’s officials and their canine companions have intercepted anything from drugs, to money, contraband cigarettes and counterfeit clothing.
Naturally, the drug finds are the most worrying. The seizures we have seen over the past months strongly indicate that Malta is being used as a transhipment hub for narcotics, and the amounts aren’t small.
In this latest case, the drugs had come from South America and were destined for Libya, where they would have likely been used to fund the conflict there. This was not the first time that Malta intercepted drugs that were destined for North Africa or the Middle East.
On one hand, it is a very good thing that Malta has stopped these deadly shipments, but one must also question whether these increased seizures reflect an increase in drugs passing through our borders. Are we finding the few drug shipments pass from Malta, or are we only finding a fraction of what’s going through? This is a question that we had asked the government some months back, but to which we never received a reply.
In an interview with this newsroom a couple of years back, the director of the Customs Department, Joseph Chetcuti, had said that Malta can never win the war on drugs, pointing out that traffickers always strive to adapt and overcome the latest customs strategies. He had also explained that, even if 95% of drugs were intercepted, the traffickers would still make a profit from the 5% that went through. This is why the department tries to scan as many containers as possible.
While winning the war on drugs is not something that can be achieved easily, the department has made great strides forward over the past years and should be applauded.
Every drug bust made means that the narcotics will never find their way to the streets, or to fund conflict and terrorism.