March 9, 2024 - 5:15pm
A report this week from the EU’s drug agency (EMCDDA) and Europol has revealed that the EU’s illicit drug market is worth at least €31 billion. The market for cocaine, Europe’s second most popular drug behind cannabis, is worth €11.6 billion on its own. This market has seen a continual increase in recent years, with five of the continent’s 10 largest ever cocaine seizures occurring in 2023. Just last month, the UK had its largest ever cocaine seizure when authorities intercepted 5.7 tonnes at Southampton Port.
Cocaine’s illicit odyssey into Europe begins in the Andean region of South America, typically Colombia, where drug trafficking cartels and guerrilla groups clash between themselves in cultivation regions, before using smuggling routes to evade the eye of the state. The powder is then usually shipped to Ecuador, a country engulfed in gang violence thanks to a cocaine trade which has empowered criminal organisations. Once transported across the Atlantic, the drug reaches Europe in port cities such as Antwerp and Rotterdam where criminal groups fight for control.
The flood of cocaine into European cities is partly due to an increase in supply. Last year Colombia, the world’s largest cocaine-producing country, witnessed record figures for coca cultivation, which is then used to create the drug.
North America has typically constituted the world’s biggest cocaine market yet, despite the logistical issues which arise from the distance of transportation, the European market is becoming an attractive destination for cocaine traffickers. On the old continent, the powder is sold for a much higher price than in the oversaturated US market: one estimation values a kilo in America at $28,000, whereas the same quantity will fetch $40,000 across Europe.
Such potential for profit creates efficient and increasingly elaborate supply chains involving container shipping, semi-submersible vessels, yachts, boats, and submersible drones. Alliances and rivalries between powerful Mexican, Colombian, Ecuadorian, Albanian, Moroccan, and Dutch groups manage and enforce this multi-billion-euro trade.
The EMCDDA and Europol report also details the malleability and innovation of these criminal groups in shifting routes and tactics to evade authorities, something which is evident throughout the cocaine trade. One increasingly common tactic involves narco-submarines — clandestinely built vessels which sit just below the water, trafficking huge amounts of cocaine and a handful of crew members across the Atlantic. In 2019, for example, a 22-metre-long narco-sub was caught off the coast of Spain carrying three tonnes of cocaine.
Another innovation of sorts is the rise of cocaine-producing labs in Europe. This doesn’t require the entire production line from leaf to powder, but cocaine is now frequently trafficked to Europe in its non-consumable coca paste or coca base form. The coca paste and base are harder to detect for authorities, reducing the risk of seizure for smugglers. Then, in factories in the European countryside, the drug is made into cocaine hydrochloride — the consumable powder. Dutch producers revealed the sophistication of this practice when, in 2020, police raided an old riding school in the small village of Nijeveen and discovered a lab capable of producing 150-200 kg of cocaine a day, sleeping quarters and recreational rooms.
As authorities are struggling to find an answer to Europe’s booming cocaine market, some are even turning away from the war on drugs altogether. Earlier this year Amsterdam’s Mayor, Femke Halsema, recommended the legalisation and regulation of cocaine to stem drug violence in the Netherlands and avoid her country becoming a “narco-state”. In conjunction, the Swiss capital of Bern is considering trialling a legalised cocaine market while, further afield, Colombian President Gustavo Petro has called for an end to the war on drugs.
Will drug violence unravel the illicit trade on which it is built? Unlikely. But the tectonic prohibition infrastructure which upholds the global market is most certainly shifting.
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SubscribeLegalise it and tax it. It will create jobs, wealth and ensure it’s not cut with fentanyl and other rubbish
Cocaine is a terrible drug to legalize. I know avid users who’ve gotten all kinds of physical problems from it.
Of course nobody ever got “physical problems” from drinking alcohol or smoking tobacco.
hasn’t worked with tobacco, what on earth makes you think legalising will eradicate the illegal market? all it will do is expand consumption which is of no benefit to society
What fuels the black market in tobacco is the massive taxes placed on it that makes smoking incredibly expensive, hence people look to try and buy it cheaper from those who smuggle it in from abroad. If fags were taxed at the same rate as most other things the black market would stop tomorrow
The only reason there is an illegal market for tobacco is that the government taxes it so harshly.
Talk about white supremacy.
Why fight evil? I mean – look it is a hassle, it just is going to win anyway. Right? I mean legalize it and tax it.
Like burglary – no one enforces it anymore so License it. Then it can be regulated. If some breaks into a house and does unnecessary damage, or goes into an occupied house and scares the residents – well then they could lose their burglary license so will not do that. Plus it will pay in tax to fund schools and hospitals, Right?
The answer is so obvious – it is the law which is the problem, not the criminals. Remove the law and the crime goes away. Want to reduce crime? Just legalize stuff.
Do not fight – evil is going to win, why bother, just surrender, it is so much easier – and if getting burgled distresses you – well go get some cheap cocaine at the corner store – or if on a tight budget, some fentanyl. It will all be fine, just give in and go along, take it easy, no worries.
Big difference is that burglary is a crime specifically committed against somebody else, whereas sticking a load of marching powder up your beak only hurts the user.
I’m not going to pretend coke can’t be dangerous, I’ve had a mate top himself after going a bit hard on it, but ultimately that was his own fault. It being illegal did nothing to stop it happening, and caused much more damage to others along the way
This is the ‘victimless crime’ argument but really it’s the logic of despair.
There’s a lifelong drug user in my block – she looks at about 40 like an escapee from Belsen. Is this really the best hope for human beings ? She started because drugs were sold to her as something cool, fun and relatively risk-free. But that turned out to be a big lie and it’s ruined her life.
Don’t blame societal problems either, because there’s always been those and historically far worse than now. Besides, if drug use is a symptom of bigger societal problems, let’s face the problems instead of self-medicating ourselves into oblivion.
Even if Cocaine were legalised, there’s an encyclopedia of new substances turning up every week. How could legalising one of them sort out the mess ? Is the government going to play catch up with foreign labs to corner the cool market in new products ? Do you seriously imagine the billionaire drug barons are going to just call it a day ?
And as for revenue being spent on harm reduction; we’ve been trying to mitigate the harms of alcohol overuse for ever – how’s that going ?
Who’s going to run the country while everyone else is ‘off their tits’ on whatever is the current substance du jour ?
What about all the other criminality associated with drug use (see alcohol) ; family breakdown, risky sexual and other behaviour, domestic violence, murder and rape, traffic accidents yada yada ?
Isn’t it just time we saw the 60’s dream of expanding our minds with substances for the disingenuous lie it always was and buried the myth of glamorous and fun drug use once and for all?
So what’s the alternatives?
You’ve just said that there are numerous drug addicts anyway, many get pushed onto other, more addictive substances by unscrupulous dealers. We currently spend billions trying to police it all to no avail. If you don’t want to see it sold in a controlled fashion, do you want to stick with the status quo?
Billy, do you not think there’s any moral dimension to this ?
Or is it just a business – you’ve got something to sell and I want it so what does it matter. That’s the justification for prostitution isn’t it ?
Do you really think society can function properly with an ever increasing number of people off in la la land for days at a time ?
Can you not think of anything more worthwhile or meaningful to do with your life than sniffing, swallowing or injecting shit from somewhere or other ?
I think we need a complete moral revival in this country from the bottom up but how and whether this can even happen at this stage is open to question.
I’m sorry but I think your idea that our addictive urges can just be managed away without total societal collapse is a fantasy.
What’s moral about the current setup? Giving billions to criminal gangs. Murders left right and centre throughout the supply chain.. Unscrupulous dealers pushing punters onto harder drugs than they otherwise would take. Drugs cut with dangerous substances that leads to overdoses. And despite all this we still addicts and drugs freely available throughout society
It has (almost) always been ok to drink alcohol, and in many places, cannabis is legal. How is cocaine so different?
maybe start hanging anyone involved ? Works in Singapore.Certainly would diminish the attraction a bit for the smart set
Cocaine, opium and all recreational drugs used to be legal in the Victorian age in the UK and honestly as far as success goes they conquered the world. Drugs being legal doesn’t mean it’s not still a moral failing if you take drugs.
Do you believe that everybody would then choose to be smackheads if you could buy some gear legally? Were there any more addicts in the Victorian age than today?
Does the person you refer to use cocaine though? From your description, she sounds more like a methamphetamine user.
wasnt it in Pratchett’s Discworld that crime was allowed but regulated and the crims had unions? Lets hope that doesn’t become the real world situation
I propose capital punishment for every person in the possession of illegal drugs and we start enforcing this law with MP’s (both commons and lords), police top brass, CEO’s of financial institutions, judges, NHS managers, BBC Trustees, council members, bishops, mayors and any other person with a annual income above 100.000 GBP. Fish starts rotting at the head first, so better be safe than sorry. Of course, it needs to be stopped. A person cannot function properly on a drugs addiction. Anyone who claims the opposite, should stop making claims about climate change, eating meat, driving a car ofr taking the plane for going on holidays. Chairman Mao gave the example how to get rid off an opium addicted population within a five year period.
The death penalty for some poor teenager who grows his own cannabis – not the horrible skunk – but good old fashioned weed? Seriously? How long will he spend on death row at the tax payers’ expense or do you propose execution squads that arrest and shoot the same day?
Not when they see what happend to the MP’s etc.
“Good old fashioned weed“? Where have you seen that in the last 30 years?
“A person cannot function properly on a drugs addiction“. Churchill was arguably addicted to alcohol (he certainly drank it every day of his life), and he was the greatest leader Britain ever had.
“the tectonic prohibition infrastructure which upholds the global market”
Hmm. I’m pretty sure it’s simple Demand that upholds the global market, no? As it will in all likelihood after legalisation.