Belgium and the Netherlands have become the main centers of cocaine trafficking in Europe

Belgium and the Netherlands have become the main centers of cocaine trafficking in Europe, overtaking Spain as the main smuggling route, Europol, the European Union’s police agency, said on Tuesday.

Taking advantage of the increase in the supply of cocaine, particularly from Colombia, criminal gangs use the port cities of Rotterdam, Hamburg and especially Antwerp to send the drugs to the Netherlands, from where they are distributed throughout Europe, according to Europol.

“The epicenter of the cocaine market in Europe has moved north”, said Europol, which produced a 27-page report with the Vienna-based United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). “The increase in containerized shipments to high volume ports of Antwerp, Rotterdam and Hamburg it has consolidated the role of the Netherlands as a stopping point ”.

This lead to the mainland coast of the North Sea overtakes the Iberian Peninsula as the main entry point for cocaine arriving in EuropeThe report says. Last year alone, cocaine seizures in Antwerp amounted to some 65.6 tonnes, says Europol in the report Cocaine Information. In February, a record 23 tonnes were seized in Germany and Belgium, which were hidden in sea containers.

The cocaine market in Europe was driven by increased supplies, particularly from Colombia, where the 2016 peace deal with the FARC guerrillas left the market divided and open to more competition.

The FARC controlled part of the coca growing area and regulated access to the supply of cocaine available to intermediaries and international traffickers., according to the report.

“The peace agreement brought about the end of the integrated command structure of the FARC and the emergence of various splinter groups that control different regions and the production of cocaine in them, ”according to Europol.

This, in turn, “multiplied the potential for forming new alliances and associations ”, adds the report. At the same time, European drug gangs have shifted their strategy, forming alliances with these groups “thus eliminating the middle man” and obtaining the cocaine straight from the source.

“The fragmentation of the criminal landscape in the countries of origin has created new opportunities for European criminal networks to receive a direct supply of cocaine, by eliminating intermediaries ”, we read in the report. “This new competition in the market has led to an increase in the supply of cocaine and, as a result, more violence.”

“Previously dominant monopolies in the wholesale supply of cocaine to European markets have been challenged by new trafficking networks. Criminal networks in the Western Balkans, for example, have established direct contact with producers and have secured a prominent place in the wholesale supply of cocaine ”.

Julia Viedma, Head of Europol’s Operations Department and Analysis Center, said: “Cocaine trafficking is one of the main security issues we face in the EU today. Almost 40% of criminal groups active in Europe are involved in drug trafficking and cocaine trafficking generates criminal profits of several billion euros. Better understanding the challenges we face will help us more effectively counter the violent threat that cocaine trafficking rings pose to our communities. “

After cannabis, cocaine is now the second most popular drug in Western and Central Europe. The most recent estimates gathered by the report suggest that there have been some 4.4 million consumers last year.

(With information from AFP)

Read on: