Links between cocaine gangs, how they cooperate to bring tons of Europe. The torture chamber in the Netherlands is revealed!

Alexander is in his mid-40s and lives in Berlin-Mitte. He is a cocaine consumer. Once, he says, he consumed approximately twice a week. Since the lockdown as a result of the coronavirus consumes more often, says Alexander DW on the phone: “Probably four times a week.”

He has friends to visit at home every night, which is actually currently banned under the coronavirus regulation in Berlin. “People get very upset,” he says. “And what do they do when they get upset?” They take narcotics for fun. ”

Party in the living room

Before the pandemic Alexander and his friends met in bars. There they sometimes smuggled cocaine. “When you are a group of eight people in a bar, not everyone goes to the toilet at once,” he says. “But when you are at home, you take the cocaine on the table, all at once. That way it gets faster and as a result everyone gets even more. ”

There are still no zarytre figures on how drug use changed during the coronavirus pandemic. Limited contacts, closed borders and empty airports have created many headaches for criminal gangs. Many experts had predicted that the drug trade and illegal consumption would fall.

Record finding in port

Already less cocaine on the market? No, on the contrary, says Alexander from Berlin. One call is enough, and for 20 to 30 minutes you have the “cocaine taxi” at the door. “He doesn’t wait more than three-quarters of an hour,” he says, just like with Lieferando or the pizza service at home. Even prices have remained stable, he says.

This is confirmed by René Matschke. His job is to disrupt the supply of “cocaine taxis”. Matschke is the head of the Hamburg Customs Investigation Office. “The main landing sites for cocaine are always the big ports,” Matschke told DW.

Data on seized quantities of cocaine in Germany from 2014 – 2021

Over 23,000 containers arrive at the port of Hamburg every day. Matschke’s associates single out suspicious containers, coming from South America, have passed a certain itinerary and have been traded by dubious firms. In large warehouses, customs investigators inspect these containers through X-ray machines.

They always find cocaine, sometimes packed in sports bags, sometimes hidden among big bags or in frozen foods. “The amount we seized today has never been found before,” says Matschke. “During the last two years we have found up to ten tons. “Years ago we seized three to five tonnes a year all over Germany.”

But last week Matschke introduced the largest amount ever ascertained: 16,000 kg. cocaine in metal packaging, which in fact should have been plaster. So much cocaine has never been seized during an investigation in Europe.

Why in Europe?

Europe, meanwhile, is the most attractive market for criminal gangs, Jeremy McDermott told DW. The director of the InSight Crime Organization talks about a “cocaine transport line to Europe”.

“Prices in Europe are much higher and the risk much lower than in South or North America,” said McDermott, who with his team in Medellín, Colombia, analyzes organized crime in South America. “The United States spends billions of dollars every year on its fight against drugs. “They have a whole army in action to fight drugs.”

Orientation in Europe is for gangs “just a reasonable facilitation of business”. McDermott believes that the European cocaine market will continue to grow, “especially in Eastern Europe.”

Brazilian Itineraries

Production in countries like Colombia, Bolivia or Peru continues to be high. From there, several routes to Europe have been established, says McDermott. “The most preferred route is from Colombia to Brazilian ports.” But by then cocaine passes into four to five hands.

“Another gang is needed there to take care of putting the cocaine in the container designated for Europe. “Bribes to port and customs officials will probably have to be paid for this.” Unlike in the past, criminal groups from different countries are involved in business.

In Europe the containers are picked up by another team, which sends them to transit warehouses. Dutch gangs are often engaged in this link in the key ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp.

In a transit warehouse the goods are shared. “A consignment often has several owners and many different buyers,” says McDermott. “They take the goods and transport them all over Europe.”

In this way the drug finds its way to the small distributors to reach e.g. even up to Alexander in Berlin. A total of 12 million Europeans have once taken cocaine, according to the EMCDDA, the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction in Lisbon.

Even Laurent Laniel from EMCDDA thinks that cocaine in Europe has been spreading for several years. “We have to be prepared that there could be more corruption and more violence in Europe,” he told DW.

At least in proteas and airports based on the quantities detected it becomes clear that the gangs may have recruited employees with bribes. “There are more and more signs of corruption in the investigative authorities and the justice system. We are of course not at the level of South America. “But it can happen that there are special people in the administration and in politics in Europe who benefit from the cocaine trade.”

Torture room in container

The more cocaine comes to Europe, the more money is at stake, says Laniel. This increases the willingness of gangs to use violence. He says that a torture chamber was discovered on a container ship in the Netherlands, which is an example of the brutality with which organized crime in Europe operates.

“Even in Hamburg there have been shootings in the circles of drug bosses,” said René Matschke of Hamburg Customs. “During inspections we constantly find weapons.” Even customs and police officers have been threatened.

How should the state react? Declare war on drugs, as in the US? No, says Jeremy McDermott of InSight Crime in Medellín. “We need to have a comprehensive approach, not just repression, detentions and arrests.”

Germany must cooperate with partners, the US and friendly countries in Latin America. “Civil society needs to be strengthened to provide alternatives to cocaine farmers. “If efforts are made to restrict the drug trade by controlling the containers in Hamburg, it will not have much effect.”

Consumer Alexander in Berlin considers himself the last link in a long chain. If he will give up cocaine consumption, then that will not change anything, he says. “If the goods are here, it is the same as with a slaughtered pig. “If the meat is on the table and I do not eat it, the pork is slaughtered anyway and will not be resurrected.”

But how is it with his health? Regular consumption of cocaine can damage blood vessels and organs, can become addictive, leave psychological consequences and cause mental illness, doctors draw attention. “Of course sometimes it is doubtful what he injects,” says Alexander. However, he intends to reduce cocaine consumption as soon as the lockdown ends.

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