The production of alkaloids in Europe could far exceed that of Latin America.
According to the latest European Union drug report, some cocaine production has moved from Latin America to Europe, as criminal groups explore new trafficking methods and authorities strengthen transatlantic cooperation but without major effects.
As detailed by InsIght Crime, “both drug seizures and consumption continue to increase in Europe”, this is also according to the conclusions published on June 11 by the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction, EMCDDA.
“Although seizures have increased, purity remains high and prices remain stable, showing that there are huge quantities of cocaine available,” said Ylva Johansson, European Commissioner for Home Affairs, during the presentation of the drugs report.
However, Europe continues to be the new destination for Latin American drug traffickers and criminals: especially from Ecuador, Venezuela, Mexico and Colombia.
The growing arrival of drug traffickers to these countries occurs because the majority of Latin American countries do not need a visa and those that do, such as Ecuador or Bolivia, criminals manage to have false passports through Colombia or Venezuela.
In fact, Madrid, Tarragona, Barcelona, León and Salamanca are cities in which signs of the presence of Ecuadorian drug criminal groups such as Los Lobos and Tiuguerones have already been found.
This is because after the capture of alias ‘Comandante Willi’, it became evident that there is already a strong presence of Ecuadorian criminals in the Iberian country.
The problem is that the growing corruption and the immigration crisis that not only Spain but Europe in general is going through, makes Latin criminals act faster as a parallel State and with more violence.
Spain specifically has a rather bureaucratic State that makes it slow in the face of the growing advance of transnational drug trafficking and in turn allows corruption to flourish. This was evident when the Anti-Laundering Chief of the National Police of Madrid was found with 20 million dollars, he and his wife, which came from drug traffickers who took drugs from Guayaquil to Spain.
The departure of criminals to Spain coincides with the signing of the agreement between Ecuador and the United States in the fight against drug trafficking that was given by the Government of Guillermo Lasso and was strengthened by that of Daniel Noboa.
“We always saw cocaine processing laboratories on a small scale, but now we are seeing them on a large scale,” Andrew Cunningham, head of markets, crime and supply reduction at the EMCDDA, told InSight Crime in January 2024.
Europe’s fear is that the United States, with the arrival of Donald Trump to the White House, the European Union will no longer have the support of the North American authorities in the fight against drugs and drug trafficking.
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