Spaniards are the most prolific users of cocaine in the world, according to a report from state prosecutors obtained by El PaÃÂs newspaper on Tuesday.
Spain has overtaken the United States and left Britain and Ireland behind, with the proportion of people who use the drug rising to more than one in 40. ”Spain occupies the top place in the world,” the report said, citing United Nations figures on cocaine use around the globe.
The reason for such a high rate in Spain is that much of Europe’s cocaine is unloaded on to Spanish beaches.
Last year 33 tonnes of it were seized by Spanish police, much of it being handled by the smuggling clans in the north-western region of Galicia who turned to the lucrative cocaine trade more than 10 years ago. The smugglers offer their services to traffickers from around the world who want to get the drug into Europe.
Often cocaine is unloaded from merchant ships into trawlers and then, once near the Spanish coast and under the cover of darkness, into speedboats that land it on Galicia’s rugged beaches. The Galician smugglers store it then hand it back to the traffickers. They take a cut of the cocaine as payment.
More than 50% of cocaine found by police in Europe is discovered by Spanish officers, who arrested about 600 suspected traffickers from Colombia last year, and 150 from Britain.
Spanish police were also reported on Tuesday to have been behind the discovery of 4,6 tonnes of cocaine unloaded in Rotterdam at the weekend. – Guardian Unlimited Â