The Cocaine Pipeline to Europe The Cocaine Pipeline to Europe February 2021
Authors: Jeremy McDermott - Co-director James Bargent - Project Manager Douwe den Held - Researcher María Fernanda Ramírez - Researcher
Designers: Elisa Roldán, Graphics Manager Ana Isabel Rico, Graphic Designer Juan José Restrepo, Graphic Designer Table of Contents
1. Cocaine to Europe, an underestimated threat...... 4
2. The Colombian cocaine shift to Europe: a business no-brainer...... 11 The Shift to Europe...... 12 The changing face of the cocaine trade...... 15
3. Spain: The European base for Latin American organized crime...... 17 Birth of the European cocaine trade and the move downstream...... 18 Spain in the new cocaine era ...... 20
4. The Italian mafia and the move upstream...... 24 Cocaine brokers and the criminal diaspora...... 25 The Italian mafia and the cocaine migration...... 27
5. Cocaine – the criminal steroid ...... 30 The Latin American steroid effect...... 31 Europe consumes the steroid...... 33
6. Container shipping: cocaine hide-and-seek...... 38 The move to containers...... 39 Switching ports and departure points...... 42 Ever-changing Modus Operandi ...... 43 The future of the container battle...... 46 The war for ports...... 47
7. The rise of “plata” over “plomo:” The cancer of corruption...... 49 Plomo o plata...... 50 Air France and the cocaine cancer...... 50 European cocaine profits corrupt Latin America...... 53 states...... 54 Air France: The twist in the tale...... 55 The corruption cancer in Europe...... 56
8. The future of the cocaine trade to Europe ...... 58 1. Cocaine to Europe, an underestimated threat
Colombian police officers inspects packages of cocaine seized in Cartagena. AP Images
Over the last five years, the cocaine trade has enjoyed an unprecedented boom, with record levels of production. Coverage of this has largely focused on the United States and its seemingly endless “war on drugs.” However, smarter traffickers have long preferred another market: Europe. “For 2019 and the first months of 2020, the thinking was that the flow of drugs entering or passing through Europe was between 500 and 800 tons. We base these numbers in part on the notion that we are seizing 10 to 20 percent of the total,” said one senior European police official and cocaine expert, who was not authorized to speak on the record. This number rivals the estimates of cocaine entering the US mainland. Consumption in Europe is lower than the United States, so it is likely that a significant percentage of the drugs entering Europe is in transit to other parts of the world. However, European organized crime also often profits from these shipments, and this trade is boosting the criminal syndicates that pose a growing threat to European nations and the European Union. Since production began climbing in 2013, cocaine production has more than doubled. And while the rate of growth has slowed, there is still no sign of it hitting a peak. The world is awash in cocaine, yet prices have not collapsed as traffickers have aggressively explored and developed new markets. Here is where Europe has far more potential than the more saturated US market. Traffickers are pushing eastwards from the more established markets in western Europe towards Russia and Asia, and feeding every country in between. So, while the United States remains the natural market for Mexican cartels, Colombian groups have increasingly focused on Europe, as well as developing new markets in Asia and Australia.