Cocaine Seizures Expose Flaws at Guatemala, Honduras Ports

Written by Alex Papadovassilakis

The discovery of large amounts of cocaine in cargo shipped from Honduran and Guatemalan ports has revealed the difficulties in securing maritime shipping operations on the northern stretch of Central America’s Caribbean coast.

Customs officials at the port of Le Havre in northern France found 1.4 tons of cocaine hidden inside a shipping container transporting coffee, according to a statement released by French authorities on May 19.

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Source: insightcrime.org

Rise of pirates in the Caribbean

By Rinsy Xieng

While pirates are becoming rarer off the Horn of Africa, particularly in Somalia, since warships patrolled the area, the number of acts of piracy and robbery is steadily increasing, with a sharp upsurge in Caribbean. For example, 28 events were recorded in 2019 off the island of Grenada, compared to only 3 the previous year. In the West Indies, it is mainly pleasure boats that are targeted.

Boaters and merchant ships

Pirates no longer hesitate to board large vessels, such as merchant vessels, even though the palm goes back to the Gulf of Guinea, where almost a third of the attacks took place there according to the report of the MICA Center, the center of expertise French Maritime Safety, which has just published its annual report. In 2019, for example, the organization recorded 360 events related to piracy and robbery. This figure has been stable for four years but less than it was 10 years ago.

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Source: rci.fm