Pour l’approvisionnement transatlantique de cocaïne, c’est #business_as_usual …
Europe flooded with cocaine despite coronavirus trade disruptions - Reuters
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-eu-drugs-idUSKBN22C1TY
FILE PHOTO : A Brazilian custom agent uses a sniffer dog to inspect a container going to Europe for smuggled drugs at the Port of Santos in Santos, Brazil September 24, 2019.
REUTERS/Amanda Perobelli
Latin American drug lords have sent bumper shipments of cocaine to Europe in recent weeks, including one in a cargo of squid, even though the coronavirus epidemic has stifled legitimate transatlantic trade, senior anti-narcotics officials say.
The illegal drugs industry has been disrupted by the virus, with international supply chains busted and millions of customers on lockdown.
But drug kingpins have risen to the challenge, packing huge loads of cocaine into the fewer container ships and commercial airplanes in circulation in a sign they were ready to take higher risks to deliver their wares.
“Based on seizures of bigger-than-usual shipments of cocaine, it would be fair to say that Europe was flooded with cocaine ahead of lockdowns,” Bob Van Den Berghe, senior law enforcement officer at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), told Reuters.
This trend has continued despite many European countries - including major user markets such as Britain and Spain - severely restricting their populations’ movements.
“The global pandemic, at this moment in time, has not had an effect on maritime drug trafficking. It’s business as usual,” said Michael O’Sullivan, head of the EU-funded Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre which coordinates interdictions at sea.