new drug

A major new cocaine trafficking route has developed into the UK through the Balkans, the UN has warned.It said the amount seized in Eastern Europe had increased "dramatically" and that this was contributing to the low cost of cocaine in the UK.

Cocaine's street price has dropped to almost half what it was 10 years ago and Home Office figures last week showed a line could be bought for £1.

Ministers say the fall is due to many factors, not just increased supply.

'Stockpiles'Hamid Ghodse, president of UN drug watchdog the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), blames the fall in price on cocaine's widespread availability.

He said the drug was much cheaper now because there was "plenty of cocaine available", with increased production in South America's main sources - Colombia, Peru and Bolivia.

These producers have switched their smuggling routes from the Caribbean and the North Atlantic to avoid US and British naval patrols, the INCB's annual report says.

The Balkans - traditionally used to smuggle heroin from Afghanistan and Central Asia into western Europe - are now increasingly being used as a supply line to bring cocaine into Europe, the INCB warns.

The smugglers are targeting countries with "weak governmental structures that have limited capacity to defend themselves against drug trafficking and its consequences, such as corruption and drug abuse", the watchdog says.

The report also warns that stockpiles of cocaine are being built up in West Africa from where it is smuggled into Europe, either directly or via the Balkans.

"The route of transporting for traffickers has become relatively easier and less susceptible to interdiction," Dr Ghodse said.

He added that unless this new route through eastern Europe was restricted, the price of cocaine would continue to fall.

However, the Home Office disputes this, arguing that the fall in price is due to several factors, not just increased supply.

In November, the UK recorded the highest number of cocaine users in Europe for the fifth year running, according to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction