When Mexico’s drug cartels forced Colombian traffickers out of the US cocaine market, they seized control of the most coveted prize in the global drug trade. But the smartest traffickers soon began to turn elsewhere, to a market where the profits were higher, the risks were lower and the potential for growth was immense. They turned to Europe.
Today, Europe is arguably the most attractive cocaine market in the world, and its size and importance only continues to grow. This series, which is the product of field work and investigations over two years in more than 10 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe, traces the evolution of the European cocaine trade and the Latin American and European criminal networks that have shaped it.
Investigation Chapters
Cocaine to Europe: An Underestimated Threat
Over the last five years, the cocaine trade has enjoyed an unprecedented boom, with production levels at record highs.
The Colombian Cocaine Shift to Europe: the Business No-Brainer
In 1989, Los Angeles police transformed Europe’s cocaine trade when they broke open a padlock guarding a Californian warehouse.
Spain: The European Base for Latin American Organized Crime
On April 30, 1984, the Mercedes taking Colombian Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla home after work was strafed with machine gun fire.
The Italian Mafia and the Move Upstream
Operation ‘Tiburón Galloway’ began as a local investigation by prosecutors in the Italian region of Calabria in 2001, but quickly snowballed into a multinational, multiagency investigation.
Cocaine: The Criminal Steroid
Cocaine is a criminal steroid. Those that gain access to its riches enjoy accelerated growth and power – quickly – usually leaving a trail of violence and corruption in their wake.
Container Shipping: Cocaine Hide and Seek
The volume of cocaine needed to feed the booming European market requires the type of bulk transport capabilities offered by containers.
The Rise of “Plata” over “Plomo:” The Cancer of Corruption
In July 2020, British drug trafficker Robert Dawes was sentenced to 22 years in prison for his role in one of the most emblematic European drug trafficking cases of the last decade: the attempt to smuggle almost 1.4 tons of cocaine on an Air France flight from Caracas to Paris.
The Future of the Cocaine Trade to Europe
The flow of cocaine to Europe may have suffered along with most licit businesses due to COVID-19.