How does Europe get its cocaine?
Europe’s ports now routinely record drug busts of tonnes of cocaine at a time, with record drug seizures reported in the Port of Rotterdam in 2021. But these drug busts are just one part of the story when it comes to Europe’s cocaine crisis. With the price of cocaine in Europe significantly higher than the Americas, and high demand from a reported 4.4million cocaine users, the flow of cocaine from Latin American drug cartels into Western Europe is growing exponentially, and it’s fuelling a wave of organised crime among Europe’s narcos. From low-level drug smugglers operating in the ports themselves, to rising gun crime in Sweden, drug gang assassinations in the Netherlands and gangland hits across Europe, drug related violence is increasing in frequency and intensity, much of it resembling Colombia and Mexico-style crime and violence. And it isn’t just those involved in the drugs trade that are being caught up in the crime wave - with a rising supply chain risk for businesses using the ports, business premises being shot up and innocent bystanders having their homes attacked and their lives threatened.
In this episode of The Insight, Senior Regional Analyst for Latin America, Aaron Arends, looks at how drugs are smuggled into Europe, why Europe is such an attractive market for South American cartels to sell their cocaine, how drug traffickers get their cocaine out of the ports, how this cocaine spreads from the shipping containers to drug gangs across the continent - and how this is leading to a rise in violent crime in countries like the Netherlands that is reminiscent of the narco-states found in Latin America.
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Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction
00:15 - What is happening in Europe's ports?
03:09 - How are drugs smuggled out of the ports?
05:38 - Why is this a threat to businesses?
08:41 - Organised crime in Europe
