The Spanish Civil Guard checks baggage with cocaine during a drug operation in Alicante. Photo: EFE file
The restrictive measures adopted by European governments in 2020 and 2021 to try to stop the spread of covid-19 have hit many economic sectors to the point of paralyzing some.
Most of these sectors were legal but not all. One of the hardest hit was drug trafficking. almost no nightlife after the closure of the hotel sector, with no major music festivals or transfers, the drug use fell across Europe and with it all related activities fell.
Were two years of small “business”, but 2022 brings the return to “normality”. According to the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction, an agency of the European Commission, illegal drug trafficking in Europe already healed from the crisis that the restrictions caused by the pandemic.
Cocaine seized in Colombia, which was to be shipped to Europe. Photo: AFP / Raúl Arboleda / file
The availability of illegal drugs already exceeded the levels of 2019 and a trend that began at the end of the last decade has strengthened with the growth of new synthetic drugs.
The European Commission believes that the availability of illegal drugs has grown mainly in terms of cocaine and methamphetamineswhich are increasingly produced in Europe.
Data from the report begins to reveal, for example, that Mexican drug cartels they already produce synthetic drugs in Europe to avoid trips from Central America and possible kidnappings. It is a leap that if they can secure it will give them a new door to the European market.
adulterated cannabis
The report also states that national authorities are detecting this every time there is more cannabis (the most consumed drug in Europe) adulterated with synthetic products this makes it more dangerous and deaths caused by poisoning with this type of adulterated cannabis increase.
Seizure of a shipment of cocaine in Spain. Photo: AP file
They also find that cartels are using more and more regular commercial transport (e.g. loading more drugs into cargo ship containers) e they use less of their own resourcesit is more likely to be detected by the authorities.
The major European ports always mentioned in reports on drug trafficking to Europe, such as the Spanish port of Algeciras, the Belgian port of Antwerp or the Dutch port of Rotterdam, they barely scan a small portion of all containers arriving at their dock.
Alexis Goosdeel, director of the European agency, said at the presentation of the report that “drugs they have never been easier to obtain and new and powerful substances keep appearing ”.
Goosdeel points to the gray areas between illegal drugs and legal drugs or even medicines: “Today almost any product with psychoactive properties can be a drug.”
The drug arrives in Europe in containers, with regular commercial transport. Photo: Bloomberg
European Commissioner for the Interior, Sweden’s Ylva Johansson, said she was worried about growth alliances between European and international criminal networks because they are the cause of the record availability of cocaine and the industrial-scale production of methamphetamines in the European Union.
The report shows that the availability of illegal drugs is increasing, that their customers have access to the substances more powerful and dangerous that cartels are managing to create new routes and even establish production in Europe.
The report further acknowledges that the resurgence of the illegal drug market in the aftermath of the pandemic shows the strength of the market and related illegal activities.
Brussels, special
ap
Idafe Martin
Source: Clarin
