14 alleged members of a drug trafficking gang were arrested by the Spanish police in Catalonia following an investigation that started in December 2018 after the discovery and seizure of a large quantity of cocaine in boxes of A4 paper shipped from Brazil. The gang were thought to be laundering the profit of their trafficking…
DetailsThe Ivory Coast navy seized 411 kg of cocaine and made 5 arrests following the discovery of a ship idling at high sea. The ship was seen to offload the drugs to a smaller vessel that came alongside. The West African coast is vulnerable to illicit drug trafficking, as previous seizures in Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau…
DetailsThe Director of the EMCDDA presented the EU Drugs market report 2019 to the Committee on Civil liberties, Justice and Home Affairs at the European Parliament in Brussels. The director put emphasis on the fact it is a wake-up call for policymakers looking at the worrying trends of the illicit market which is fast growing, well…
DetailsThe EMCDDA and the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) have discussed and agreed on the next joint work programme covering the period 2020-2024. The cooperation between the EMCDDA and the CICAD has been ongoing since 2000 and is framed by a Memorandum of Understanding. One of the major components of their cooperation is the joint…
DetailsIllegal landing strips in Venezuela are proliferating under the control of the ELN, the FARC and the EPL, also known as the “Los Pelusos”. Utilised to move drugs and the pre-cursor chemicals that support cocaine production, the issue of clandestine airstrips is a growing concern. Fueling parallel and illicit economies and underpinned by corruption and…
DetailsIn the era of trade globalisation, the use of containers at sea has become and remains the most efficient way to smuggle illicit drugs. Container ships have doubled in size and can therefore carry more containers than 10 years ago and pressure to deliver the shipments on time has increased. Comparatively and proportionately speaking, fewer containers…
DetailsFollowing the seizure of 855 kg of cocaine in Suriname that was destined for the Belgian port of Zeebruges, the arrest of two individuals diving in the Zeebruges waters at night and the seizure of 200kg of cocaine in autumn a ship sailing to England, the Mayor of Bruges announced that there will be more…
Details6 tonnes of cocaine destined to Lomé, Togo, were seized in Uruguay. 4.4 tonnes were found and seized by the Navy and the customs authorities in four containers at the Montevideo seaport. In relation to this seizure, 1.5 tonnes of cocaine were further discovered and seized in a ranch. The Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro signed…
DetailsThe Irish Guarda considers expanding its network of liaison officers in South American countries. Organized crime groups in Ireland operate worldwide and almost of the cocaine trafficked in Ireland comes from South America. This is all the more a worrying trend as the volume and purity of cocaine have both increased. For the time…
DetailsThe Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly 12th Ordinary Plenary session took place in Panama City, Panama, on 12 and 13 December. The Assembly, through its Co-Presidents’ declaration, expressed “concern at the alarming rise in organised crime and the complex international networks behind it, as well as the enormous capacity it has to corrupt officials at all…
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