CUNNING cartels are slipping billions of pounds worth of cocaine under authorities noses and into Europe on rusty dung-filled cattle carriers.
Cops won’t touch the vessels because it is a “logistical nightmare” to deal with the thousands of disease-ridden cows.
The reeking ships, packed with with animals dead or rotting after months wallowing in their own muck, leave officers gagging before they even consider a search, according to The Telegraph.
In gang-run ports such as Santos and Belem in Brazil and Colombia’s Cartagena, up to 10,000 cows are crammed aboard decrepit 200m-long carriers.
This is according to investigations by the Lisbon-based Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre, Narcotics (MAOC-N), the EU outfit that hunts drug traffickers at sea.
The ageing 50-year-old tubs then sail around the Caribbean or South America to collect the real treasure – four to 10 tons of cocaine, worth as much as £450m, stashed in giant grain silos and any nook the smugglers can find.
The ships are often registered to countries with lax jurisdictions, such as Panama and Tanzania, to avoid tricky maritime laws.
They are then supposedly headed to ports in Beirut, Lebanon or Damietta, Egypt, where livestock rules are far less strict than in Europe.
But the real destinations are Europe’s coke gateways, the major ports of Antwerp or Rotterdam.
Coke bundles are slung overboard in inflatables with GPS trackers for “go-fast boats” to smuggle into Belgium and the Netherlands.
European cops have only managed to seize one coke cattle ship in the past 18 years, when at one such suspicious ship heads to Europe every week.
This is according to MAOC-N – a European maritime enforcement agency formed in 2007 that includes the UK – who say the foul conditions alone put off law enforcement.
An intelligence analyst for the MAOC-N told The Telegraph: “You would not want to spend more than one minute on one of these vessels, you can only imagine the smell.
“The authorities don’t want to have these vessels at their ports.”
“Logistically, the countries don’t like to do inspections on board these vessels. The bad guys, they know this and that’s why they are using it.”
Even sniffer dogs can’t cope with the stench, which overwhelms them and renders them near-useless.
The source said the scale of the scam is a “black hole”.
Without exact intel on where the narcotics are hidden, it’s nearly impossible to convince national police to risk a full seizure.
They added: “You can imagine the cost of such an operation, to get to a port, take all the cattle out, get all the authorities in to do an inspection on a vessel that is very big, a lot of concealment [for drugs].
“They [the gangs] are very professional and they know exactly what they can take advantage of.”
The only European bust came on January 24, 2023, when armed Spanish officers captured the 100m Orion V, 62 miles southwest of the Canaries, as it sailed from Colombia to Lebanon.
They found 4,500kg of cocaine, about £82m worth, hidden in cattle feed silos, and had to wade through dung and urine from 1,750 cows to get to it.
The Togolese-flagged vessel was dragged into The Palmswhere residents later moaned about the stench.
Its 28-strong multinational crew were all arrested.
Last week police there revealed that sheep carrier Al Kuwait was allegedly used to smuggle £84m of cocaine into Australia
Fishermen spotted the drugs tied to a floating drum off Lancelin, north of Perth, on November 6.
Cops say the haul had been dumped from the livestock carrier as it headed for Fremantle Harbour.
The next day officers charged the ship’s chief officer, a 46-year-old Croatian, with attempting to import a commercial quantity of cocaine.
A 19-year-old and 36-year-old from Sydney, plus a 52-year-old Perth man, were allegedly waiting on shore to retrieve the cocaine.
A narco submarine with 1.7 tonnes of cocaine was recently intercepted in the Atlantic on route to the UK and Europe.
The huge underwater vessel was believed to be on a drug trafficking mission to flood the UK and Europe with the dangerous Class A substance.
Cops also found mattresses and luggage on board as well as essentials such as mouthwash and water bottles – suggesting the men had been travelling across multiple days.