The prestigious North American media InSight Crime points out that there are several operations against drug transport networks in Andalusia, Spain, but that each time the trafficking of narcotics to Spain, especially from South America, has increased considerably.
The increase in cocaine seizures in the area confirms and alerts authorities to the growing role of the south of the country as a gateway for Latin American cocaine to Europe.
In April alone, the Spanish Civil Guard arrested 63 people as part of an investigation against drug trafficking on the Andalusian coast, as well as in the Guadalquivir River, south of the Iberian Peninsula. “During the operation, which remains open, 13 drug boats, 12.3 tons of hashish and 634 kilograms of cocaine have been seized,” InSight Crime reported.
The borders between Spain and Latin America are narrowed by drug trafficking
In Cádiz, likewise, in recent years, there has been an increase in cocaine seizures, which grew by 78.4% among 2021 y 2022going from approximately 9 to 16 tons.
“The network had an average of between eight and ten EAV vessels [Embarcaciones de Alta Velocidad] (…) to carry out the different transportation of merchandise from other national or international organizations that demand their services,” the National Police explained in a press release.
According to Miguel Ángel Ramos León, representative of the Unified Association of Civil Guards (AUGC) of Cádiz, “In four years we have had five Civil Guard agents who have died from being run over, attacked or murdered at the hands of drug traffickers.”
According to the InSight Crime portal, this is due to “the record levels of coca leaf cultivation and cocaine production in South America being a key factor in the increase in cocaine seizures in Spain, where authorities seized almost 142 tons of cocaine in 2023, an increase of 142% compared to 2022.”
Andalusia is the main port through which drugs enter and are stored and distributed to Spain and Europe.
“A large part of the cocaine (sent) to Spain and Europe is entering or residing in that port,” Ángel Bodoque Agredano, special anti-drug prosecutor of the National Court, told InSight Crime.
Africa also plays a fundamental role in cocaine trafficking to the Iberian country. Well, the large quantities of cocaine that are sent to West Africa are also trafficked to North Africa by land, as indicated by a growing number of seizures in countries in the Sahel strip, a region located south of the Sahara Desert.
According to figures from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), between 2015 and 2020, the annual average of cocaine seized in the region era 13 kilos. However, this amount increased progressively until reaching 1.5 tons in 2022 and exceed two tons in 2023. Once in North Africa, traffickers use different vessels to transport the merchandise to countries like Spain.
Among the reasons is the fact that a large part of Latin American nationalities do not need a visa to enter the Schengen area, which is taken advantage of by drug gangs to test the waters and make links with their own mafias based in Spain, which adds to the growing corruption in the Spanish system both at the political and police levels, which allows the country to be fertile ground for cocaine trafficking.
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