This is a level of violence equivalent to that of a Central American country. In a report on crime linked to drug trafficking, European authorities are concerned. Never before have so many illicit products circulated within the European Union.
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Pitched battles between teenagers with Kalashnikovs, a torture chamber in a forest in the Netherlands… In Europethe picture drawn up by Europol and the European anti-drug agencies is overwhelming.
In a market estimated at 30 billion euros per year, violence is reaching records in Europe. And imports of cocaine and ecstasy exploded in 2022.
One of the striking data in this report is also the youth of the offenders hired by traffickers. Minors serve as lookouts in Marseille, while others are employed to remove drugs from containers at Dutch ports.
Protect citizens
To face it, the European Union is moving forward divided. In Belgium and the Netherlands, political leaders recognize the failure of the total ban on drugs. But in other member countries, repression still remains the main solution.
“ The time has come to no longer hunt down consumers, but to protect citizens », warns the director of the European Center for Monitoring Drugs and Addiction, Alexis Goosdeel.
Brussels, Amsterdam or even Lisbon are today the cities with the highest rate of cocaine per capita in the world.