Maltese authorities made 326 drug seizures last year, as the global crackdown on narcotics intensified, a new report shows.

The European Drug Report, published in Lisbon today, found that Maltese police and port authorities carried out 15 per cent more drug busts last year than the year before, with a particular focus on cocaine.

In fact police carried out 115 raids and other cocaine related operations, bringing in around 4kg from a mix of small sachets and large consignments.

Police together with port officials also seized an impressive 30, 375 ecstasy tablets and just over a kilo of heroin.

Anti narcotic efforts were also focused on cannabis, with some 156 operations and arrests yielding more than 11kg of resin and green cannabis.

Not all the marijuana was being imported,however, as officers confiscated 27 plants all being grown locally.

Despite the relatively high number of cannabis arrests and seizures, Maltese people are actually the least likely to smoke the drug. Just four per cent of Maltese try marijuana even once, compared to a quarter of all Europeans.

On the other hand, Malta has one of Europe's biggest heroin problems, second only to Latvia and the UK in terms of proportion of problem users.

The annual report this year had a special focus on new synthetic substances, after more than 2 new drugs were discovered every week in 2014.

In fact the number of previously unknown substances identified in Europe skyrockets from less than 10 in 2006 to 101 last year.

Although data was sketchy in the availability of these substances in Malta, report Scientific director Paul Griffiths told Times of Malta the substances did exist on the island, and we're a growing concern.

"The market in Malta is such that these substance haven't taken over yet but they definitely do exist and, as we have seen across the rest of Europe, they could become very popular," he said.

Times of Malta last week interviewed Shalon Abela who suffered repeated black outs after dabbling with synthetic cannabis substitutes.

The drug report also delves into drug purity levels, highlighting the increased trend for faster action and more potent drugs.

Heroin for instance has increased in potency from 13 per cent to around 20 per cent purity across Europe. Cocaine has also increased in purity from around 33 per cent to as much as 55 per cent in some countries. Perhaps the biggest increase in drug strength came in form of Amphetamines and methamphetamines, luckily, however, the estimated use of theses substances was virtually non existent in Malta.

Mr Griffiths said the cause of the purity shifts were different in different member state and different substances. cannabis for instance was becoming stronger because grows were now utilizing new techniques but also because of new methods to create resign. This was resulting in Cannabis growers and hash makers competing against one another for superior products.

Meanwhile, ecstasy makers were utilizing new primary chemicals which make for stronger pills. This was a drastic change in Malta, he added, where up until a few years ago, many ecstasy pills contained no active ingredient whatsoever.

Drugs and migrant smugglers, the war on trafficking

There is a definite link between migrant smugglers and influx of drugs into Europe, European Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopolous said earlier today.

Speaking during the official launch of the European Drug Report, Mr Avramopolous said there was no doubt that those responsible for trafficking migrants from Africa into Europe were also using their networks to bring narcotics into Europe.

Asked what could be dine about this, the commissioner told Times of Malta efforts had already began between anti narcotics agencies and those involved in boarder control.

However, it was clear that there was need to crack down on this, with better legislation that enabled law enforces to work faster and more effectively.

"We cannot continue to allow smugglers to take advantage of these poor people to bring drugs into Europe," he said, adding that efforts would have to be made to ensure the safety of migrants was out first, and that anti narcotics efforts would not jeopardize migrant lives.

The drug report highlights routes from Africa and the Middle East as being a new major route for drug smuggling.

Interestingly, although there was last year a dramatic increase in heroin production, there is yet to be any noticeable increase in the supply, suggesting traffickers and heroin suppliers are yet to team up, or smooth out kinks in the supply chain.

Mr Avramopolous meanwhile, also expressed concerns over the growing trend of online companies offering an avenue to supply narcotics. These, he said, had started off offering legal highs, such as synthetic cannabis, but have since branched out into illegal drugs.

Speaking to Times of Malta from the sidelines of the report launch Mr Avramopolous said he would be meeting with online industry leaders to discuss solutions to the problem.