The EU police agency said on Tuesday (September 7) that Belgium and the Netherlands have become the main hubs for cocaine trafficking to Europe, surpassing Spain as the main smuggling route.
Europol stated that criminal groups have used the increased supply of cocaine, especially cocaine from Colombia, to use port cities such as Rotterdam, Hamburg, and especially Antwerp to transport drugs to the Netherlands, and from there to distribute them throughout Europe.
“The center of the European cocaine market has moved north,” said Europol, which worked with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna to produce a 27-page report.
“The increased use of container transportation that relies on large-capacity ports such as Antwerp, Rotterdam and Hamburg has consolidated the role of the Netherlands as a transit point.”
According to the report, this “causes the North Sea coast of the European continent to surpass the Iberian Peninsula and become the main entrance for cocaine into Europe.”
Europol stated in the “Cocaine Insight” report that last year alone, the total amount of cocaine seized in Antwerp was approximately 65.6 tons.
In February, Germany and Belgium seized a record 23 tons. They are hidden in the container.
The cocaine market in Europe is largely driven by the increase in supply, especially from Colombia, the country’s 2016 peace agreement with the left-wing FARC guerrillas split the market and faces increased competition. .
According to the report, the FARC controlled part of the coca-growing area and controlled the supply of cocaine available to middlemen and international traffickers.
“The peace agreement resulted in the end of the FARC’s integrated command structure and the emergence of various separatist groups that control different regions and their cocaine production,” it said.
The report added that this in turn “increased the potential for the formation of new alliances and partnerships.”
The report said that at the same time, European drug gangs changed their tactics and formed alliances with these groups to “cut off the middleman” and obtain cocaine directly from the source.
According to the report, European drug gangs usually operate along the family, race or language, including Moroccan and Albanian drug gangs and the “Endrangeta Mafia” group in Italy.
According to the report, cocaine has become purer, and since 2012, the quality of cocaine has been comparable to US imports.
The report states that after marijuana, cocaine is now the second most popular drug in Western and Central Europe, and recent estimates indicate that there were approximately 4.4 million smokers in the past year.
