News briefing week of 19 July

22/07 Spain and Serbia dismantle Serbian marijuana trafficking network. 43 members of a Serbian organised crime group have been arrested for their involvement in producing and distributing marijuana and hashish. 22/07 350 kilograms of cocaine hidden in a coffee bean shipment from Guatemala were seized by the Greek police at the port of Piraeus. The…

News briefing week of 12 July

13/07 Cocaine worth $15 million was seized in Puerto Rico, two men arrested, following the interdiction of a go-fast vessel in Mona Passage waters near Mona Island, Puerto Rico. The interdiction resulted from multi-agency efforts in support of U.S. Southern Command’s enhanced counter-narcotics operations in the Western Hemisphere and coordination with the Caribbean Corridor Strike…

News Briefing – Week of 01 February 2021

01/02 – Hungarian officials found 3,000 boxes of smuggled cigarettes in Röszke during an inspection of a Turkish truck transporting smoked trout fillets.   01/02 – The Bulgarian authorities, with Europol support, took down an organised crime group suspected of currency and document counterfeiting.   02/02 – The Colombian Policía Metropolitana seized 457 kilograms of…

News Briefing – Week of 11 January 2021

11/01 – Europol and Frontex signed an agreement to exchange liaison officers.   11/01 – Argentinian authorities found 216 amazon parrots at checkpoint in Santiago.   11/01 – The Colombian Policía Antinarcóticos in coordination with the Armada Nacional, seized 1,539 kilograms of cocaine and another five kilograms of amphetamines on a merchant ship in Cartagena.…

News Briefing – Week of 7 December 2020

07/12 – Panamanian law enforcement destroyed 6.2 tons of marijuana and 30.2 tonnes of cocaine, which were part of the seizures made during operations carried out by the Policía Nacional, Servicio Nacional de Fronteras (Senafront) and Servicio Nacional Aeronaval (Senan) in recent months.   07/12 – Operation Armstrong VII, a joint operation among law enforcement agencies in 25…

The European Drug Report 2020 is out!

The European Drug Report (EDR) 2020 was released on 22 September 2020. The EDR is a yearly publication produced and presented by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA). It aims at providing a picture of the drug and drug addiction situation across Europe as well as identifying current trends. The 2020…

News Briefing – Week of 27 July

29/07/2020 – The Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs stated during a press briefing that Africa has become a hub for organised crime and a source of illicit drugs, mentioning the involvement of Nigerian organisation in the manufacture of methamphetamines. 30/07/2020 -A fleet of 206 Chinese fishing boats…

News Briefing – Week of 6 July

(In French) 6/07/2020 – Luis Abinader has been elected president of the Dominican Republic. 7/07/2020 – Thailand and Laos enforcement authorities are cooperating in the fight against drug trafficking at the northeastern Thai border with Laos that is highly vulnerable to the trafficking of methamphetamines and heroin. The Golden triangle (Myanmar, Lao and Thailand) is associated with high levels…

News Briefing – Week of 29 June

29/06/2020 – A joint investigation between Spanish and Italian law enforcement enabled the dismantlement of an organised crime group trafficking waste from the canary islands to Africa. It is estimated that the organised crime group trafficked around 250 tonnes of hazardous waste. 29/06/2020 – Greek authorities arrested two suspected traffickers after the discovery of 11kg of heroin…

News Briefing – Week of 18 May

The lock-down measures adopted in Morocco have disrupted the usual routes used to traffic cannabis towards Europe. Indeed, traffickers were previously relying on the commercial shipping vessels or high-speed boats crossing the Mediterranean. So as to avoid detection, they are favouring longer and more expansive routes however such methodology requires drug hand-overs at high sea.  Burmese authorities…