An overview of recent changes in cocaine trafficking routes into Europe. Background paper commissioned by the EMCDDA for the 2016 EU Drug Markets Report

Spain and Portugal in the south, and ports in the Netherlands and Belgium in the north, are the most important entry points for South American cocaine reaching the European market. Cocaine is shipped from Latin America mainly in boats departing from Brazil and Venezuela. Venezuela has become more important in recent years as trafficking organisations move Colombian cocaine overland across a porous border and take advantage of the busy maritime traffic between the coast and the islands of the Caribbean, where the Dominican Republic and Jamaica are considered the main hubs, although operations elsewhere appear to have pushed some trafficking through the Eastern Caribbean. West Africa, while no doubt a trafficking route and storage location, has decreased in importance in recent years following a marked rise in seizures between 2004 and 2007.
The nature of international commercial maritime traffic means a vast number of routes can and will be used. Smaller, private boats are able bring in large quantities of cocaine in single shipments. Air transport of cocaine, which involves individual couriers aboard commercial flights as well as private flights, is also used, and aside from direct flights from Latin America, recognised stop-off points are in the Caribbean, Cabo Verde, the Canary Islands, and West Africa. However, compared to maritime shipments the quantity transported by air is marginal.
In the past few years, seizure data has suggested growing use of South Eastern Europe as an entry point, spurring talk of an emerging Balkan route for cocaine overlapping an established heroin route, and seizures in Baltic countries have also led to discussion of another possible passage for cocaine. Available data suggests a) these 'routes' are used sporadically; and b) they remain of negligible importance compared to established primary routes.