The Hague, 2 January 2024 (dpa/MIA) - Europol says efforts to smuggle cocaine into Europe will continue to increase over the next two years due to increasing production in South America, Europol's chief Catherine De Bolle says.

"We can't stop it completely because the demand is too great," she told dpa. At the same time, the European police authority based in The Hague points to the increasing success of investigators in the fight against international drug trafficking.

Last year, more than 300 tonnes of cocaine were confiscated. Europol has never had such a good insight into the organisation of drug smuggling as it did last year, said De Bolle. This applies to both international distribution channels and local sales.

Most of the cocaine is smuggled from South America to Europe by sea and enters the EU mainly via the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam. Customs investigators are increasingly finding large quantities of the drugs hidden in shipping containers.

In Rotterdam, for example, they seized the largest single quantity to date in August, around 8,000 kilograms of cocaine worth around 600 million in a container with bananas.

Europol believes the seized shipments are probably only a fraction of the smuggled cocaine. "But it's starting to hurt the gangs," said De Bolle. They are increasingly trying to get the confiscated cocaine back. In the meantime, they were even equipping shipments with trackers to be able to follow them precisely.

The investigators' successes were made possible after they cracked the gangs' digital communication channels. "This gave us a seat at the table with the criminals, and they felt totally safe," said De Bolle.

Europol says violence in connection with drug trafficking also increased in 2023. "There is so much to earn and the competition is fierce," said De Bolle, who comes from Belgium. She cited explosives attacks in the Netherlands and Belgium as well as violent offences in Sweden and France as examples. "We didn't see the scale of this ten years ago."

Europol is also increasingly focussing on money flows in the fight against the drug mafia. It is estimated that only 2% of the profits are actually discovered and confiscated. In Europe alone, Europol estimates the volume of cocaine trafficking at more than €5.7 billion ($6.3 billion) per year.

"The gangs have amassed an enormous fortune," said the Europol chief. They also invested this in the legal economy, speculating on the stock markets, buying property or cryptocurrencies. Corruption and infiltration are also increasing the destabilisation of society, she said.

Photo: MIA archive