“Ireland should sanction the United Arab Emirates if Kinahan is not extradited,” says the Colombian vice president

Colombia is the world’s largest producer of cocaine and Irish crime gangs, including the Kinahan cartel, are working with Colombian drug cartels to smuggle the drug into that country.

Gardaí were even dispatched to the Colombian capital of Bogota to break up the crime cartels.

Asked how to get justice for criminals like Daniel Kinahan, who is on the run from An Garda Síochána and the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) in Dubai, Ms Ramírez said sanctions should be considered when countries fail to do so Wanted to help clamp down on criminals.

“I think we need to improve extradition agreements between countries. For example, Colombia is very open to extradition deals with many different countries, and we extradited so many people,” she said.

“We need to make tougher decisions on some governments [and say,] ‘Okay, if you don’t help us enough to fight these drug dealers, we don’t want all these trade deals,'” she said.

“I think consistency is important to defeating the cartels.”

The Vice-President said that European countries must play their role in fighting the criminals.

“The Colombian government is doing everything we can in our hands, but there is a long value chain.

“There [are] so many people process the coca [plant] in laboratories in Europe. It used to only exist in Colombia.”

She said Colombia has no “control” over drug processors in Europe.

“That’s why we always ask democratic governments to work with us because it affects the legitimacy of all of us,” she added.

“It’s not just Colombia, we can’t fight this alone.”

When asked if she was worried about the impact of European drug cartels on Colombia, Ms. Ramírez replied: “Of course.”

“It is clear to us that the money that comes from drugs is so much and these people are very powerful.

“These cartels are not just involved in drugs, they’re involved in human trafficking, human trafficking.”

She said part of the reason for her country’s booming drug trade is the Colombian peace accord, which ended five decades of conflict with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The chapter on drug cartels is “very soft,” she said.

“It doesn’t ask [for] a commitment to provide information about the international cartels that are their allies, so they have Mexican characters, Russian cartels, European cartels from different countries, of course from everywhere.

“So it was clear to us that if they didn’t commit to providing information about these international cartels, we wouldn’t solve the drug problem in Colombia.”

Ms Ramírez said young people need to be shown how harmful it is to the environment to produce drugs

“I think we need to run more effective campaigns that also show youth how drugs are destroying the environment – ​​how much water is being used because of drugs, how much chemicals, how much deforestation. We in Colombia have seen huge deforestation because of the coca crop,” she said.

“We have to show the citizens and young people that you kill yourself if you use drugs [making] a very bad decision [for] your brain [for] Your health, but you are also destroying the environment.”

The issue of drug trafficking was raised at a meeting between Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Ms. Ramírez when she was in Dublin last week for the Global Diaspora Summit.

Foreign ministers and ambassadors from 12 countries, including France and India, took part in the two-day summit of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Co-chaired by Diaspora Minister Colm Brophy, the Foreign Ministers signed the Dublin Declaration, which will set the agenda for future action on global diaspora engagement.

Ms Ramírez said Colombia is in talks to start exporting green hydrogen to Ireland, which the country hopes to be able to produce soon.

“In the future we would like not only to have the opportunity to export but also to bring Irish investment to Colombia to develop in Colombia because we can have a kind of hub in Colombia to produce energy and sell it to different countries “, She said.