Record-breaking amounts of illicit drugs are arriving in Spanish ports such as Algeciras and Valencia. Just 20 kilometres from Gibraltar, in the port city of Algeciras, huge amounts of cocaine are discreetly entering into Spain. With the media’s attention focused on Gibraltar, Algeciras has become one of the main entry points for the narcotic into the rest of Europe. Among the four million containers that arrive every year at the port, thousands of kilos of cocaine, mostly from Colombia, are camouflaged between bananas, frozen chickens or simply stuffed in backpacks.
According to the latest report from the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC), published just days ago, the circulation of cocaine is higher than ever. And they have the data to prove it. The amount of cocaine seized in 2016 (the latest year with available data) was over 1,000 tons; an unprecedented figure. And the number of hectares used to grow coca has smashed all the records. Cocaine trafficking, the UN warns, has reached epidemic proportions.
On the other side of the law, a veteran drug trafficker from the north-western region of Galicia agrees that the problem has reached a new dimension. “There’s too much of it. There’s more cocaine than is needed. There are warehouses right now in Madrid and Seville where it’s piling up.” The skyrocketing supply seem to be hurting prices.
“Prices have hit rock bottom.” As well as Algeciras, other Spanish ports along the Mediterranean Sea (especially Valencia and Barcelona) and along the coast of Galicia – a traditional cocaine stronghold – have become a gateway for cocaine.
According to Javier Cortés, the head of Valencia’s Customs Surveillance Service (SVA), the port of Valencia “receives more than five million containers a year. It’s utopian to think we could check them all. But we try.” Prosecutor De Lucas goes further: “The big ports –be it Valencia, Antwerp or Rotterdam– are black holes.”
Source: elpais.com
