MISC 101: Letter to the Chairman of the Committee from Chris Bryant MP and Mr Alan Campbell MP: Counter-narcotics work with Colombia

 

 

We are aware that there has been considerable interest in the counter-narcotics work in which the UK is engaged in Colombia. We thought it might therefore be helpful to lay out the rationale behind our work there, and how our work with Colombia upholds our opposition to human rights abuses.

 

Our counter-narcotics work with Colombia is an integral part of the Government's drugs strategy Drugs: Protecting Families and Communities. This is a multi-Departmental strategy led by the Home Office, but the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has a significant role to play when it comes to our relations with other countries on the issue.

 

Colombia is the leading producer of cocaine and the base for the most significant organised crime groups controlling the trade. The UN Office for Drugs and Crime estimates around 65% of global cocaine production and distribution originates from Colombia: it is the source of the bulk of the cocaine reaching the UK.

 

It is worth considering what cocaine trafficking means to the population of the United Kingdom. 3% of the UK's adult population has used cocaine in the last year - up from 2.4% in 2007 and from only 0.6% in 1996. This is associated with a broad range of social and personal problems:

 

- Anti-social and violent behaviour, particularly when cocaine is mixed with alcohol;

- Associated and substantial revenues to organised crime networks, blighting the lives of individuals and communities and fuelling other types of crime, including human trafficking, gun and knife crime;

- Increased risk of experimentation with other Class A drugs, especially by the young;

- Psychological and physical effects on the health of cocaine users, including hypothermia and respiratory and cardiac failure;

- Adverse effects of the cutting agents used in processing cocaine - some of which can cause cancer;

- Indirect social costs of cocaine use on health, criminal justice, prison, police and other enforcement services.

 

But the cocaine trade harms Colombia too. It constricts Colombia's economic development, corruptly undermines its political processes, and is linked to (and funds) domestic terrorism. Innocent individuals suffer displacement from their homes and despoilment of the environment in which they live and work: two million hectares of land have been cleared in the last 20 years for illegal cocaine production - including an estimated 8000 hectares of national parks. Kidnapping by criminal groups remains a widespread danger as does maiming or death from their indiscriminate use of land mines

 

Cocaine is trafficked from Colombia through the Caribbean or West Africa to Europe and the UK. Those countries also suffer serious effects. For example, the increasing exploitation of West Africa by traffickers and the involvement of West African criminal groups has undermined stability and development within the countries in that region.

 

It is for these reasons that we work in Colombia to tackle the illegal drugs trade. This work involves intelligence-sharing, raising policing and law-enforcement standards, and promoting best practice amongst Colombian law-enforcement partners. All this helps to destroy the criminal networks which target the UK.

 

Successes our Colombian partners have had with our help in recent years have included: (a) arrests of high profile drugs traffickers in Colombia; (b) the dismantling of organised crime networks; (c) many tonnes of cocaine seized destined for the UK (we do not release specific details for security reasons, but SOCA has been involved in the interdiction worldwide of over 240 tonnes of cocaine); and (d) seizures of assets of drugs traffickers.

 

In the UK we are taking down the drug rings that deal in Colombian cocaine; and attacking associated money laundering activities. For instance, one investigation by SOCA led to the arrest and conviction of a senior supervisor in a major courier company. Andrew Burns had been attempting to pass packages containing cocaine to organised crime groups, using legitimate company names as a front. A parcel containing 35 kilos of cocaine was intercepted at Gatwick, and was substituted in order to effect a controlled delivery. Burns was found guilty on 9 September 2008 for his part in the importation and was sentenced to eight years imprisonment. An Unduly Lenient Sentence application was heard in February 2009, and the sentence was subsequently increased to 14 years.

 

Similarly, SOCA has responded to increased activity of Colombian drug traffickers seeking new routes into Europe. A successful operation with the authorities in Sierra Leone led to the extended disruption of cocaine flights from South America to West Africa. In summer 2008, SOCA intelligence prompted the seizure of over 600 kilos of cocaine when a light aircraft was detained at Sierra Leone's main international airport. Sierra Leone Police made the seizure following close collaborative work between a Sierra Leone intelligence unit and SOCA. The crew of the light aircraft, together with members of a Colombian organised crime group who had based their drug trafficking operations in Sierra Leone, were detained attempting to flee over the border to Guinea. Fifteen people were charged in December 2008 and are now serving prison sentences. At the request of the local authorities, a team of SOCA officers was deployed to Freetown to help the Sierra Leone Police with the collection of forensic evidence, its investigation and its presentation in court. In addition, SOCA's Forensic Science Group assisted with the examination of technical equipment, fingerprints and drug samples in the UK. This was the first major drug case the Sierra Leone Police had ever investigated and was a notable success for them, as well as for SOCA.

 

The use of extradition between Colombia and the UK is an important new development in our shared fight against organised crime. Carlos Coronado was extradited to the UK in March and subsequently sentenced to five and a half years imprisonment for money laundering offences linked to drug supply.

 

International engagement with Colombia is delivering results.  The UN reports coca cultivation in Colombia to have declined significantly.  The wholesale price of cocaine across the EU is rising - up 25% in the UK last year alone. Street sales now seldom contain more than 20% cocaine and often as little as 5%.

 

We accept that we have a shared responsibility for the trade in cocaine. Cocaine users in the UK are contributing to the problem in Colombia. So we support the Colombian government's Shared Responsibility campaign, which raises awareness in the UK of the devastating consequences of the cocaine trade.

 

Needless to say, much of this work is extremely sensitive. We are working against ruthless drugs organisations, and revealing details would put British and Colombian lives at risk. In common with other intelligence-led work that we do, we do not publish the precise costs of our counter-narcotics work.

 

However, we want to assure you that:

 

- All UK personnel engaged in this work operate under full UK control at all times.

 

- We believe there is a clear distinction between counter-narcotics and counter-insurgency in Colombia. UK personnel - and those with whom they work - are expressly not involved in counter-insurgency training or operations.

 

- We apply the strictest UK standards in relation to the protection of human rights in every facet of our work, and with every person with whom we work.

 

- Our counter narcotics work includes efforts to tackle problems of corruption and collusion. Such problems undermine the effectiveness and reputation of those who take action against drugs traffickers.

 

- We also work to ensure that criminality and human rights abuses do not go unpunished in Colombia. Continuing sources of concern for us are the number of trades unionists and human rights activists attacked and assassinated, the high murder rate, and the number of people displaced. These are issues we raise regularly and unambiguously with the Colombian government.

 

We both believe that it is important to manage our relations with Colombia carefully. We have either visited the country (Alan - in May) or are about to visit (Chris - later this year). Both of us would be happy to meet interested members of the FAC after Chris's visit, to brief them on this work. We are copying this letter to Keith Vaz in his capacity as Chair of the Home Affairs Committee, who is also interested in this important issue: how to tackle drug trafficking to the UK.

 

 

21 September 2009