A customs officer takes a sample of a few of the cocaine seized in Bavaria’s largest single cocaine seizure to date and tests it with a test tube.
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Cocaine production is at its highest level on record, with demand picking up after the pandemic and recent trafficking hubs emerging, according to a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
The United Nations Global Cocaine Report 2023 says that over the past two years, recent centers of trade in a multi-billion-dollar industry have emerged in West and Central Africa. Latest improvements and innovations in the cultivation of the coca bush and the transformation of the coca plant into cocaine have also helped the production boom, rising 35% from 2021-2022 to record highs.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on drug markets. With international travel severely restricted, manufacturers struggled to get their product to market. Nightclubs and bars have closed as officials ramp up efforts to control the virus, causing demand for drugs resembling cocaine to fall, the report said.
“Nevertheless, the latest data suggest that this decline has had little impact on long-term trends. Global cocaine supply is at record highs. Nearly 2,000 tonnes of cocaine were produced in 2020, continuing the “dramatic increase in production that began in 2014, when total production was lower than half of today’s levels,” the report says.
The cultivation of coca bushes doubled between 2013 and 2017, then increased sharply again in 2021, the report said. The means of converting the coca bush into cocaine hydrochloride also brought significant improvements.
Cocaine production requires soaking the harvested coca leaves in gasoline and other chemicals resembling ether, sulfuric acid, ammonia to allow the extraction of the cocaine hydrochloride. The gasoline and solvents are then drained and the cocaine base solidifies right into a paste, which is boiled until the liquid and other chemicals evaporate to form “bricks” containing cocaine hydrochloride.
These bricks are packaged and further sold and processed with additional chemicals resembling hydrochloric acid, ammonia and potassium salt to produce cocaine powder.
Growing demand for cocaine
Despite continued efforts by law enforcement to combat cocaine use, the global demand for the drug has only increased.
“Demand continues to grow, with most regions showing regular growth
variety of users over the last decade. While this increase could also be partly explained by population growth, the prevalence of cocaine use can be increasing, the report said.
At the same time, the variety of messages intercepted by the authorities is growing. The report states that the number intercepted by law enforcement is definitely growing faster than production, meaning that “the interdict has limited the increase in the global amount of cocaine available for consumption.”
A drug police officer stands as a police helicopter flies over a coca field during an operation in Tumaco, Narino Department, Colombia, Tuesday, May 8, 2019.
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Demand remains to be highest in North America, which accounted for 30% of worldwide drug demand in 2020, the highest proportion in the world, according to the UN Central and South America and the Caribbean got here second with 24% of cocaine users in 2020. Western Europe and The center one got here third with a share of 21%, and the African continent was far fourth with a share of 9% of worldwide consumption.
Much of the known information on the rise of cocaine has been obtained by analyzing wastewater data.
Latest transit zones
Coca cultivation stays concentrated in three countries: Colombia with 61% of the total, Peru with 26% and Bolivia with 13%.
Cocaine seizures are highest in South and Central America and the Caribbean (72% of all seizures worldwide), followed by Western and Central Europe (15%) and North America (12%).
U.S. Coast Guard personnel stand aboard the Cutter James unloading roughly $1.06 billion value of cocaine and marijuana at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, February 17, 2022.
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Meanwhile, data on law enforcement seizures suggest that “the role of Africa, especially West and Central Africa, as a transit zone for cocaine on its way to markets in Europe has significantly increased since 2019.” – we read in the report.
“Each the total quantity seized in Africa and the number of enormous seizures appear to have reached record highs in 2021.”
While use in these regions shouldn’t be yet high, the potential for its growth poses significant risks, the report warns.
The package and the courier are used to transport drugs
The reduction of so many passenger flights during the Covid-19 pandemic has reduced the ability of traffickers to use drug mules to transport drugs internationally. Consequently, the use of international postal services for cocaine smuggling has increased and stays high, according to UN research.
“Some countries in West Africa have seen significant growth [parcel and courier] smuggling services of small amounts of cocaine into Europe and beyond. In Costa Rica, smaller amounts of cocaine were shipped to Asia, Africa and Europe, hidden in goods resembling books, religious paintings and vehicle spare parts, the report said.
“The pandemic can have accelerated this trend, but traffickers were already increasingly using international postal services to deliver cocaine to Europe,” it said. “Evidence from Spain and Argentina points to a long-term decline in the use of drug mules on passenger flights. In each countries, there have been reports of larger packages being hidden in unaccompanied baggage.”
According to the report, the UK has seen a “significant increase” in cocaine seizures in “fast parcel and postal modes”.
Fishing and merchant ships are also increasingly used for cocaine smuggling, in addition to containers on container ships where front corporations and pretend documents are used to create the appearance of legitimate business.
Drug trafficking via submarines can be on the rise, in some cases using purpose-built submarines, often unmanned and pre-programmed to travel to the required destination.
This week only Spanish authorities said it was an empty drug submarine on the northern coast of Spain near Galicia, which is generally known as the center of international drug trafficking. They consider he was transporting cocaine from Colombia to Spain, and the crew had already escaped with the contents of the submarine.