How Cocaine Is Flooding Into Europe

Ryan Knutson (0:00)

Before we get to today's episode, a quick reminder, The Journal is coming to Dallas on Monday, November 9th. I'll be on stage for a live show. We'll dig into a big story, bring in a special guest, and I promise it's going to be The Journal like you've never experienced it before. There's a link to where you can buy tickets in our show notes. I'd love to see you there. All right, here we go.

The World is being flooded with cocaine right now.

More land is being cultivated for coca in South America. Gangs have taken control of ports in Ecuador and Brazil. And a well-oiled global supply chain has allowed for the illicit drug to travel around the world.

Sune Rasmussen (0:46)

Cocaine production has increased so much that cartels are looking for new markets.

Ryan Knutson (0:51)

That's our colleague Sune Rasmussen. He says that a lot of that cocaine is headed to Europe.

Sune Rasmussen (0:57)

The cocaine market in Europe has exploded.

Cocaine here is now cheaper, better, and there's more of it than ever before. Europe is now the second largest market for cocaine in the world after North America.

SPEAKER_3 (1:13)

Europe is being hit by a wave of cocaine according to Europol. The law enforcement agency admits the problem is worse than it first realized, with organized crime networks better connected and increasingly violent.

Ryan Knutson (1:30)

A lot of cocaine enters Europe through the southern coast of Spain, including the beautiful Costa del Sol, home to white sand beaches and Mediterranean cities like Malaga. In 2023, Spain seized around 117 tons of cocaine, double from the previous year.

So, to better understand how the drug traffickers are able to get so much in, Sune went there. He patrolled with the local authorities on a nighttime boat patrol. He spoke to prosecutors and drug traffickers. And he met with the families of victims of drug violence. And what he learned was that the local authorities are outmatched, outresourced and outgunned.

Sune Rasmussen (2:17)

I think, ultimately, this story, you know, for all the sort of violence and crime involved, this is a business story. And the people involved just happened to trade in illicit goods.

Ryan Knutson (2:32)

Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business and power. I'm Ryan Knutson. It's Friday, October 2nd.

Coming up on the show, how cocaine is pouring into Europe, and why authorities are struggling to stop it.

SPEAKER_4 (3:00)

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Ryan Knutson (3:36)

On his reporting trip to Southern Spain, Sune met with a person very familiar with how cocaine gets into Europe.

Sune Rasmussen (3:43)

I met with a drug trafficker at a hotel in Marbella on the southern coast of Spain. This guy has for nearly 15 years, since he was a teenager basically, been part of a gang trafficking drugs into Spain.

Ryan Knutson (4:02)

Sune's reporting shows that the trafficker is pretty senior in his gang. His job is to handle the logistics of moving cocaine from South America into Spain.

Sune Rasmussen (4:11)

And this means that he ensures that the people sending the drugs can be trusted, and then he also receives messages along the way to ensure that the cargo, the cocaine, is safe until it arrives in Spain. And we chatted for, yeah, close to two hours, and he kind of laid out the inner workings of the international drug market and drug trafficking industry.

Ryan Knutson (4:42)

For a long time, the tried and true method for getting cocaine into Europe was to hide shipments in large shipping containers and sneak them through major seaports.

Sune Rasmussen (4:52)

And this is still a common method, but traditionally, cartels, when they exported cocaine into Europe, have put them on containers. So hidden them in containers on ships where the crew often don't know that the cocaine is present. And then once it arrives, for example, in a port in the Netherlands or in Belgium, then gangs on the other end know where the cocaine is, and then they extract it.

Ryan Knutson (5:21)

But these days, the ports are crawling with security, partly due to the increased cocaine traffic. So increasingly, traffickers are avoiding ports altogether by relying on a network of small but powerful boats to avoid detection.

Sune Rasmussen (5:37)