Switzerland’s flourishing cocaine market presents law enforcement challenge

KEYSTONE

In Switzerland, five tonnes of cocaine are consumed every year, Swiss public broadcaster RTS reports. The drug arrives from Latin America, then transits European ports before reaching our shores.

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Faced with this white powder, police and customs officers are not on an equal footing with drug traffickers.

In eastern Switzerland, on the border with Austria, customs officers recently found a large quantity of drugs hidden in a car – a seemingly ordinary vehicle modified by drug traffickers. A hiding place was built into the vehicle, accessed by activating a complex mechanism: in particular, the gearbox had to be put into reverse, the boot opened and a magnet used to open it.

“The vehicles are always different, with different covers and sometimes very modern opening mechanisms,” explained Michael Zimmermann, team leader at St Gallen customs, on RTS’s 19h30 programme on Friday. Between border guards and smugglers, it’s a perpetual game of cat and mouse.

“They’re always adapting, very flexible. Of course, with our resources, our random checks and our professionalism, we are constantly trying to keep up with this evolution, to be one step ahead, or at least to keep pace,” says customs chief Mario Fässler.

Cocaine hidden in children’s books

When customs officers seize cocaine, it is sent to forensic laboratories for analysis. In a Zurich laboratory, a suitcase intercepted at Kloten airport is meticulously inspected. The drug was also hidden there, between the pages of children’s books.

Traffickers will do anything to feed a booming market. Over the past ten years, cocaine consumption in Switzerland has almost doubled, thanks to falling prices. According to analyses, it is also of better quality.

In Switzerland, cocaine consumption is estimated at 5 tonnes a year. However, according to the Federal Office of Police (Fedpol), the authorities seize only 8 to 10% of the total, the tip of the iceberg.

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“There are already seizures on arrival in European ports, and then an interception afterwards, at Swiss level. But let’s be clear: we’re not playing on equal terms with the traffickers,” says the head of the federal judicial police, Yanis Callandret. “For traffickers, it’s ‘open bar’. In their business, the world is completely open. As far as the prosecuting and police authorities are concerned, on the other hand, we don’t have quite the same rules of the game. We don’t have a region without limits”, he adds.

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Fedpol calls for more resources

Faced with this flood of cocaine, the federal police are calling for more resources. According to Yanis Callandret, head of federal policey, they are necessary because Switzerland is a central hub for cocaine trafficking.

“As it is located right in the center of Europe, whatever is going up from south to north or down from north to south will, at some point, transit through here,” he told RTS.

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Translated from French by DeepL/ds

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