Belgium and the Netherlands have become the main hubs for cocaine trafficking in Europe, according to a report by the European police authority Europol. According to the report published on Tuesday, they have replaced Spain as the main gateway to Europe. Criminal organizations use the ports of Rotterdam, Hamburg and above all Antwerp to bring the drugs to the Netherlands, from where they are distributed across Europe.
Europol produced the report in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Accordingly, the drug cartels are using more and more freight containers for drug smuggling, which has shifted the focus of the smuggling routes to the huge container ports in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Last year, a total of 65.6 tonnes of cocaine were seized in Antwerp, Belgium. And in February of this year, German customs investigators found the largest amount of cocaine in the port of Hamburg that had been confiscated in Europe: 16 tons of the drug in a total of five containers from Paraguay.
According to the report, the supply of cocaine in Europe has increased significantly in recent years. The reason for this is the peace agreement between the ex-guerrilla movement FARC and the Colombian government in 2016, which led to the emergence of various groups that compete for control of cocaine production in Colombia.
The FARC had controlled part of the coca-growing area in the country, restricting access for middlemen and drug smugglers. According to Europol, the “command structure” of the FARC disintegrated as a result of the peace agreement. Splinter groups emerged that took control of cocaine production in smaller areas. European criminal organizations took advantage of the power vacuum by bypassing the middlemen and have since been sourcing the drug directly from the producers.
After cannabis, cocaine is the second most widely used drug in Western and Central Europe. According to the latest estimates, the number of cocaine users last year was 4.4 million.