The market of cocaine — with a huge contribution from South America — and methamphetamine is experiencing a huge increase in Europe, fueled by record levels of trafficking, according to a study released Friday.
The quantities of cocaine seized in European ports “have never been as high as in the last four years,” said Catherine De Bolle, executive director of Europol when presenting the result of a report on the expansion of drug trafficking.
According to a study by Europol and the European Observatory on Drugs and Addictionsunprecedented amounts of cocaine were seized in 2020 and the continent “faces a growing threat from a more diversified and dynamic drug market.”
With regard to cocaine, studies indicate that an important part continues to be produced in Colombia, Bolivia and Peru, but that the networks diversify the use of ports on the Latin American continent and North Africa in their attempts to get the drug to Europe.
Since the opening of peace negotiations with the FARC and the Colombian government (…) we have seen a dramatic increase in cocaine production in Colombia,” said Alexis Goosdeel of the European Observatory.
In addition, he pointed out, “there has been an improvement in chemical processing” and with it the volume of drugs produced.
Police seized most of the cocaine in Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain in 2020, the three countries where the bulk of the drug is processed before distribution.
“Growing Threat”
In addition to cocaine, methamphetamine has also become a growing problem.
“On several occasions, tons of methamphetamine produced in South America have been seized in the European Union. In most cases, it came from Mexico,” De Bolle explained.
Thus, the methamphetaminethe world’s most widely used synthetic stimulant drug, plays a “relatively minor role in the European drug market”, according to the report, although the latest data suggests a “growing threat”.
Production in Europe has historically taken place in small laboratories in the Czech Republic and neighboring countries, but is now also being produced in industrial-scale laboratories in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Between 2010 and 2020, the number of methamphetamine shipment interceptions in the European Union doubled, from 3,000 to 6,000. In that same period, the quantities caught increased by 477%, to reach 2.2 tons in 2020.
In Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Spain, “competition between drug suppliers has intensified” leading to an increase in violence, according to reports.
The new nature of this market has generated “record levels of drug availability, increased violence and corruptionand worsening of health problems,” says the study.
Concern with fentanyl
“The reality, we all know, is that the European Union is not just a destination area for drug trafficking. It is also an important source region and a transit region,” stressed De Bolle.
Underground networks “produce a wide range of synthetic drugs in the European Union that are distributed globally, including, for example, destinations such as Australia and Japan,” he added.
According to the head of Europol, “an increasing number of drug labs assets in the European Union that produce synthetic drugs and, in particular, methamphetamine”.
It is possible to verify a “direct link” between the European Union and Mexico, since mexican cartels They already operate in European territory, he added.
“We are concerned about fentanyl. We still do not see it in large quantities on European territory, but we are concerned because we know that these cartels [mexicanos] are responsible for the production of fentanyl for North America,” he said.
The fentanyl It is a synthetic narcotic used in medicine for its analgesic capacity, since it is much stronger than morphine, and its clandestine use has become widespread in recent years, especially in the United States and Canada.