The director of the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), together with the director of Europol, Catherine De Bolle, and the European commissioner of Interior, Dimitris Avramopulos, presented the 2019 report on the drug trafficking market in the EU. Goosdeel also stressed that the port of Antwerp had become the main point of entry of cocaine into the European Union (EU), displacing Spain. This report, however, states that the Port of Algeciras is another of the main points of entry of the drug, estimating that around 60% of the cocaine introduced in Europe enters the continent through Belgium and Spain.
According to the document, “the main means of transport used to smuggle cocaine into the EU continues to be maritime containers on ships destined for Europe, generally from Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil. In addition, the quantities per container appear to have increased. However, other traffic methods are still important.” The text also highlights that "another frequently used route, which involves other forms of maritime transport, seems to involve transit through the Caribbean or West Africa, including islands off the coast of West Africa."
According to the report, “most of the cocaine available in Europe continues to be smuggled into the largest container ports in Europe, located in Belgium (Antwerp), Spain (Algeciras and Valencia) and the Netherlands (Rotterdam). However, other ports, in France (Le Havre), Germany (Hamburg) and Italy (Gioia Tauro), for example, have now also become important cocaine entry points. In addition, larger quantities of cocaine are being shipped from South America to smaller ports in the EU, where security measures may be less stringent, such as Malta Freeport (Malta), Montoir-de-Bretagne (France), Vlissingen (Countries Low), Marin (Spain) or Tilbury (United Kingdom). However, transatlantic cocaine smuggling using private planes is a trend that seems to have accelerated in recent years.”
Apart from the new routes of entry, the mafia operating model has changed, with more and more European organized crime groups active in Latin America. "Before some big cartels controlled the production in Latin America and the transport of drugs to Europe or the United States. Today there are criminal groups from Europe or from the Balkans that go directly to Latin America," Goosdeel stated. In parallel to all these changes, the levels of violence and corruption in the EU associated with drug trafficking have increased substantially to levels that hadn't been experienced in years, according to the report.
According to published data, Europeans spend about 30,000 million euro a year on illegal drugs, starting with cannabis (about 11,600 million), followed by cocaine (with an estimated market of about 9,100 million) and heroin and other opiates (7,400 million annually). Nearly four million Europeans between 15 and 64 say they have used that drug in the last year, the report states.
Source: andaluciainformacion.es
