COCAINE DRUG OF CHOICE IN EUROPE

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -- Saturday night and thrill-seekers from around
the world crowd the streets of Amsterdam's red-light district ready
to binge on sex, drugs and alcohol.

"Hey, mister, do you want some cocaine?" a man mutters from a dark
corner while a blonde prostitute removes her bra in a shop window, to
lure customers into her room.

It's no accident the dealer was offering cocaine before he moved on
to other drugs. Cocaine use has almost tripled in Europe over the
past decade, while U.S. consumption has stabilised, according to U.N.
figures released in June.

"There is a certain glamour to cocaine in the media which has become
very appealing to all sectors of European society," said Peter
Thomas, a spokesman for European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug
Addiction (EMCDDA) in Lisbon.

Portuguese police say a stronger euro is also attracting cocaine
smugglers into European cities like Amsterdam, London and Madrid
where party-goers can easily pay up to 60 euros ($82.78) to get high
on a few lines of the white powder.

Wholesale, the drug in Europe fetches up to $77,000 per kg, almost
twice the amount it sells for in the U.S., according to the U.S Drug
Enforcement Administration.

"Dealers focus their trade in cities with money," Jose Braz, the
director of the Department of Narcotics in Portugal, which has become
a significant entry-point for cocaine into Europe, told Reuters.
"There is more and more dirty money in euros."

"There was a lot of euphoria with love-drugs like ecstasy 10 years
ago but that is going away now," said an employee of the Magic
Mushroom Smartshop near Amsterdam's night club scene in
Rembrandtplein square. He identified himself simply as AR.

"Coke is cold and ego-boosting and allows people to forget about
their insecurities. I suppose the world is becoming a colder place
these days," he added.

Europe's demand for cocaine may be growing but the real test for the
Latin American cartels is breaking into Europe's sophisticated
external borders and airports.

The solution normally comes in the form of bribes.

According to the United Nations, cartels increasingly rely on corrupt
officials in poor West African nations like Guinea Bissau, a tiny
former Portuguese colony, to store the cocaine before it is smuggled
into Europe's booming market.

"These criminals are entrepreneurs. They see a window of opportunity
and immediately jump in," said Braz, who worked with Bissau police
recently to help fight cocaine smuggling.

In April, Guinea Bissau's police was commended by the United Nations
for seizing over 600 kg of cocaine -- worth more than 30 million
euros -- but it was later discovered the traffickers had still
managed to escape with about 2.5 tonnes of the drug.

"It is regrettable that the rest of the consignment was not
intercepted, but hardly surprising as the police were woefully
ill-equipped and often do not have enough gasoline to operate their
vehicles," said Antonio Costa, the Executive Director of the UN's
Office of Drugs and Crime.

In a statement to authorities in Bissau, Costa urged them to ensure
that the seized cocaine would not "disappear" like previous drug busts.

The cocaine that eludes authorities is normally split among hundreds
of smugglers willing to risk hefty jail sentences to enter Europe
through countries like Portugal and Spain.

Last year, police in both countries, which have strong geographical
and cultural ties with Africa and historic links with Latin America,
seized a combined 70 tonnes of cocaine, about the same amount that
was seized in all of Europe in 2004.

"We are now a key entry point of drugs into Europe," said Braz.

But record drug busts in 2006 and 2007 in Europe have prompted
cartels to turn to people who are willing to fly to Europe with
cocaine hidden in bags or inside their bodies for up to 5,000 euros
- -- a small sum considering the risks involved.

"What we have found is that drug mules have increasingly been used to
smuggle the drug through airports," said Peter Thomas from the
European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.