New techniques developed to make drugs undetectable at border checks

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00:00Like dozens of other containers that arrive every day in the ports of Zeebrugge,

00:04the contents of this truck are being scanned.

00:11The scan yields images checked by these customs officers,

00:14who don't want their faces filmed for fear of being targeted by drug gangs.

00:19In recent months, checks have increased in Belgian ports.

00:22However, after last year's record figures,

00:25the volume of cocaine seized has been falling since the beginning of the year.

00:29The reason? Probably new methods by the traffickers.

00:33One phenomenon in particular raises questions.

00:36That of mesclados, mixtures that allow drugs to slip under the radar more easily.

00:45We can find this mixture, the mesclado, in all sorts of materials.

00:49We have already found it embedded in clothing, in cardboard.

00:53We have also found it in coal embedded with liquid cocaine.

00:56We cannot detect it visually in scanners,

01:00so this requires detection tools that must be improved.

01:06But once they arrive in Europe,

01:07these mixtures must be chemically treated to extract the cocaine.

01:12The drugs commissioner is calling for regulations on the importation of certain products

01:16needed to transform these mesclados, such as acetone.

01:22It's not right, for example,

01:23that anyone can just order thousands of litres of acetone.

01:29In the context of terrorism,

01:31we've set limits on the basic products used to make bombs.

01:36We should regulate the import of these chemical products

01:38where legitimate purposes haven't been demonstrated,

01:41at European level, and why not worldwide.

01:46In the meantime, the world drug market seems prosperous

01:49since cocaine production is increasing in Colombia.

01:53The fight against drug...

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