William Molinié 6:15 a.m., January 16, 2023

This is one of the unsuspected consequences of Brexit.

Two years after the United Kingdom's exit from the single European market, cocaine, ecstasy and opioids continue to pass through Calais and Dover, but the tightening of controls has opened up a new route which this time passes through Ireland...

Is the town of Rosslare, reputed to be the sunniest in the Republic of Ireland, becoming another gateway for drugs into the UK?

If two years after Brexit, the classic Calais-Dover link remains an axis much used by traffickers, a new Irish route is taking shape, report specialist investigators in a recent note that Europe 1 was able to consult.

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Tens of billions of euros

The annual cocaine market in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is estimated to be between €10.6 and €13.31 billion each year, one of the largest in Europe.

The British demand for narcotics "mainly concerns cocaine, MDMA, ecstasy and opioids", note the police.

With Brexit, customs controls and certain administrative formalities have been restored at the borders of the European Union and the United Kingdom.

In Calais, large drug seizures continue to be made regularly by French customs and police.

As in October 2021, when 325 kg of ketamine and 27 kg of heroin were intercepted in a truck which was about to take the Channel Tunnel.

Rebelotte a month later, the British found 418 kg of cocaine in a truck at the entrance to the cargo area.

In January 2022, there are 71 kg of cocaine and 100 kg of ketamine in a vehicle boarding a ferry at the port of Calais.

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Minimum border controls

In addition to this axis, which is still an important crossing point, Ireland, a member of the European Union, seems to be becoming a transit country for drugs coming from France to England.

Since Brexit, ferry services have multiplied between French (Le Havre, Dunkirk, Cherbourg, Saint-Malo and Roscoff) and Irish (Dublin, Rosslare and Cork) ports.

In addition, the principle of free movement of persons with Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom allows for lighter border controls.

British and Irish citizens, those from the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey, can thus cross borders with minimal checks on their identity documents.

This new Franco-Irish route, presented by the French police as a "threat", was spotted thanks to substantial seizures of drugs in the Irish port of Rosslare on board heavy goods vehicles embarked on ferries from Cherbourg.

Last May, 140 kg of cannabis were seized in a truck and last summer 77 kg of cannabis in a trailer arrived by ferry.

Interceptions which still remain summary, but which show the vulnerability of the control system and above all, the very rapid adaptation of the networks of traffickers to circumvent the new legislation.