Catalonia, Europe's drug logistics hub: crime doubles in 15 years

BarcelonaIt all starts when someone lets their tongue slip. The information is that a ton of hashish is in a house in Ametlla de Mar, in Baix Ebre. "You have to drop everything and run," explains a police officer. It's already nighttime when they arrive at the residential area, where silence reigns. The patrol cars are stealthily fanning out across the area when, suddenly, a van speeds off. "I'm asking two officers to arrest him," continues the person in charge of the operation. But the traffickers didn't stop and rammed the officers. "Drug traffickers aren't afraid," he adds. The police officers were injured, but the drug traffickers were eventually arrested. They were carrying 800 kilograms of hashish, which they protected with a submachine gun and more than 100 rounds of ammunition. Inside the van, which they had stolen in the Netherlands and disguised with false license plates, were jammers, beacon detectors, and night vision goggles. They had unloaded the drugs just hours before in a hidden cove in the Ebro Delta and were beginning the road transport phase. Catalonia was just another stop on the hashish's long journey, and the traffickers were ready to, if necessary, open fire on anyone who stood in their way.

Catalonia is a country of 30,000 square kilometers. 64% of the territory is green, with forests and fields ideal for hiding extensive marijuana plantations, which are also hidden in the half-million empty houses that exist throughout the country. The Catalan coastline stretches for 580 kilometers, between large open beaches and small hidden coves where the hashish mafias unload dozens of bales. Catalonia is close enough to Morocco (where hashish is produced) for boat trips, and it's also just a short drive from the gateway to Europe, where most of the drugs end up. Catalonia has the eighth largest port in Europe, Barcelona, ​​and one of the most important in Spain, Tarragona, through which millions of containers pass, potentially carrying kilos and kilos of cocaine. This drug can enter by sea, but also by air, through the seventh busiest airport in the European Union, El Prat. "Catalonia has always been a land of transit," explains Commissioner Ramon Chacón, head of the general criminal investigation department of the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police). A land of transit that over the years, especially due to the marijuana trade, has become a logistical center for drug traffickers. hub of drugs.

"And it was already happening twenty years ago," continues Commissioner Chacón. He explains that due to its strategic location, it has always been a recipient country of drugs, although significant changes have occurred in the last decade. Following a request for transparency from the Department of the Interior, the ARA has had access to figures on arrests, operations, crimes, and drug interventions from the last fifteen years. In 2009, the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) and local police detected nearly 2,400 crimes against public health. That is, drug trafficking: from the small-time drug dealer smuggling a gram of cocaine to the major trafficker. In 2024, crimes against public health almost doubled, up to 4,700. Now we're talking about twelve crimes every day, one every two hours.

The evolution

In recent years, we've gone from being mere drug receivers to producers, starting with the marijuana boom and ending with synthetic drug labs, which have recently begun to be detected. For example, a year ago, one was dismantled in Tarragona by Albanians with the capacity to manufacture 400 kilograms of cocaine. Like the rest of the world, the drug business, and with it this country, has become globalized, with foreign gangs replacing native criminal groups. These gangs are increasingly heterogeneous, mingling with each other regardless of nationality and often not living in the same areas where they commit crimes. "We operate in a global world, and our ability to influence crime is sometimes limited," Chacón admits. For example, the price of cocaine in bulk has fallen by almost half (from €50,000 per kilogram to €25,000) due to overproduction: the amount of arable land in South America has increased by 30%, and the more cocaine there is in excess, the more it is depleted. "It's much purer now than it was ten years ago," notes Mireia Ventura, head of analysis and international affairs at Energy Control. Since there's so much more of it, it doesn't need to be cut as much with other substances.

This, says Chacón, is a time of "risk." If producers lower prices and devalue the drug, it could lead, for example, to unfinished drugs being sent to Europe, known as "cake paste," and the chemical precursors to finish it in laboratories installed in Catalonia, which would allow for the production of other, even more harmful substances like crack cocaine. That drugs have become globalized is also demonstrated by the fact that the port of Barcelona is a very active entry point for cocaine after the main European ports, such as Rotterdam and Antwerp, implemented more security measures. This is clear with hashish. Less and less is entering through Andalusia due to police pressure in the Strait of Gibraltar, and traffickers are moving towards the Catalan coast. And there are other risks, such as the return of the Taliban to Afghanistan, a country from which more than 80% of the world's heroin comes. The regime implemented measures against the production of opium poppy, the plant from which heroin is manufactured, and if production is affected, it could open the door to Europe for new substitute substances such as fentanyl.

Catalonia felt the effects of this globalization with marijuana, with more than three million plants confiscated in the last fifteen years. The Albanian clans saw Catalonia as an ideal area to establish outdoor plantations, which with the drought became indoor plantations in homes and warehouses. Right now, 80% of the plantations are already indoorAnd the Swedes, Finns, and French also joined the business. All this to produce a drug that ends up selling for double or triple the price in other parts of Europe, where the penalties for trafficking are also higher. Marijuana is increasingly potent, and its active ingredient has increased tenfold since the 1990s through genetic mutations. The succession of plantations and more plantations led to the first drug robberies and the need, over time, for criminal groups to arm themselves to defend themselves against robberies. Drug clans have evolved so much that they mix with each other and with the drugs they transport: a drug boat can carry hashish, but also cocaine. And although the Albanians initially specialized in marijuana, they are now taking control of the world's cocaine market, established in Ecuador and Colombia. In fact, three years ago, the Mossos d'Esquadra issued a warning to change their strategy against drugs: they had to start focusing on cocaine and hashish.

Police pressure against these groups has also increased, as evidenced by the fact that arrests have practically doubled in fifteen years. "We want to put out a fire with a bucket, and that's why we have to go to the source of the fire," the commissioner explains. In the case of marijuana, for example, in recent years, the figures have stabilized following increased pressure and police intelligence. Police and judicial efforts are "failing." "Drug traffickers are always ahead," the same sources affirm.

The vast majority of drugs entering or produced in the country are shipped to Europe, but some remain here to supply local consumption. In 2023, as many as 15,734 people began addiction treatment in Catalonia, the highest demand since the service began in 1987. The vast majority, 14,781 people, did so for drug dependence. Forty-four percent of the cases were due to alcohol, but cocaine (3,492 cases) and marijuana are later sold, with 2,046 treatment starts. In fact, in the case of marijuana, this is an all-time high. Amphetamines (106) and methamphetamines (169) are also present.

But the drug supply is not the same everywhere, and in Catalonia, some hot spots have been detected. The Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police forces) divide the country into basic police areas (ABP), which in less populated areas coincide with counties, but in Barcelona, ​​for example, coincide with districts. On the country's drug map, Ciutat Vella is by far the blackest area: since 2009, 10,468 crimes against public health have been committed; the second-placed district, Eixample, has 2,616 incidents. Tarragonès comes next, with just over 2,000 crimes, and the Selva Litoral and Alt Empordà-Figueres ABPs also appear prominently on the heat map. The reason? These crimes are particularly prevalent in coastal areas where there is more tourism.

In fact, drugs also have seasons. When the weather is good, drug trafficking increases significantly. The peak crime season—taking into account all data from 2009 to 2024—is August and September, with more than 4,500 accumulated crimes. In contrast, the slowest months are January and December, when crimes drop to almost 3,000.

The most prevalent drugs in the country are, by far, hashish and marijuana. In fact, 2024 was a record year, with nearly 22 tons of hashish seized. This year, the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) expect the figure to drop. According to Chacón, cocaine seizures have remained relatively stable, although the vast majority are in the port of Barcelona and are usually carried out by Customs Surveillance. In the case of heroin, ecstasy, and methamphetamine, there are certain peaks that correspond to specific operations in which large quantities were seized.