Europeans Warned of Cocaine Influx
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LONDON — Record shipments of cocaine and its more addictive derivative, crack, are threatening to turn Europe’s serious drug problem into a disaster, a British government minister said Thursday.
“This is a plague we are visiting on ourselves,” Home Secretary Douglas Hurd said at the opening of a two-day meeting of the Pompidou Group, which links 19 Council of Europe countries.
He added, “The North American markets have been saturated and the cocaine barons of Latin America are now driving their product into Europe.”
An Interpol report showed that the amount of cocaine seized in Europe rose from 341 pounds in 1978 to over six tons last year.
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