The cocaine routes

BarcelonaIt's the drug of greatest concern today. Over the past four years, the global cocaine market has continued to grow, and in 2023, according to figures released by the United Nations on Thursday, cocaine will reach record levels of production, seizures, consumption, treatment, and related deaths. "Cocaine is increasing and increasing and increasing; it's a global problem," summarizes Thomas Pietschmann, a researcher at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) since 1997.

According to data from the World Drugs Report 2025, cocaine production soared by 34% in 2023, reaching over 3,708 tons. In 2019, half that amount, 1,784 tons, was recorded. The increase in recent years is mainly due to Colombia, which is the world's largest producer and accounts for nearly 70% of the market. The hectares where the cocaine is planted—equivalent to 525,000 soccer fields—have grown far below total production, indicating greater concentration and higher crop yields.

This drug "floods" European markets, Pietschmann asserts in conversation with ARA, claiming that 45% is ultimately seized thanks to police operations, both in the countries of origin and destination. In 2023, 2,275 tons of white powder were intercepted, 68% more than in 2019. The chief investigator of the World Drugs ReportAngela Me, who acknowledges that countries like Ecuador and Brazil are not as "monitored" and may also produce cocaine that escapes UN radar. A former Catalan drug trafficker points in the same direction: cocaine grown in Ecuador and Brazil also arrives in Catalonia. In any case, both Me and Pietschmann agree that, despite the recent "record" seizures, there is more drug "available" than ever. This means that the price, which has remained stable for decades, is not falling and that it reaches the consumer pure, without contaminants.

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Ecuador, on the rise

Cocaine arriving in Europe is exported from Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil, in that order of importance. And it's primarily shipped by sea: 83% of the merchandise is sent via maritime routes. Thus, in recent years, the port of Guayaquil, Ecuador, has become the hub for shipments via large cargo ships. But Cartagena and Buenaventura, Colombia, and Callao, Peru, are also common points of origin. From Brazil, the drug also makes the jump to Europe and even Africa. In fact, this is one of the major developments in recent years: it has been detected that crops from the Andean region are transported to Brazilian ports via river routes such as the Paraná Canal. From Paraguaná, Santos, or the port of El Salvador, further north, the drug travels to the European continent or the African coast. Sometimes even on sailboats rather than cargo ships. Senegal, Guinea Conakry, and Nigeria receive shipments that, via land routes, eventually cross into Europe via the Mediterranean. Whether through ports scattered along the Atlantic coast or those on the Mediterranean shore—like Barcelona, ​​​​which also receives the drug that comes from Africa along with hashish—the drug penetrates Europe and turns Spain into a major gateway for cocaine. He even warns me that cocaine is reaching Asia directly, where there is a lot of "potential" because the consumer market is enormous.

Turkey is also becoming a new player in this business, according to the Brussels Institute for Diplomacy and Economy in one of its analyses on drugs. This report also highlights the importance of Balkan gangs. "They now control the logistics of cocaine transport from Andean laboratories to street dealers in major cities such as Paris, London, and Berlin. In recent years, criminal emissaries from Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Albania have moved to South America to act as intermediaries and obtain the cheapest wholesale prices possible," the report states, indicating that they buy a kilogram for €1,700–€3,500 from producers and sell it for €25,000–€35,000 to European distributors. Europol reaffirms this: "They exercise complete control over the cocaine supply chain and exploit opportunities for corruption in ports and shipping companies."

The lead investigator of the World Drugs Report It points to the historical substitution of Italian gangs, which historically held a "monopoly" on cocaine imports into Europe. However, the Italians continue to have a presence in the importation of this substance into Europe through the Ndrangheta, one of the most influential clans, via the port of Gioia Tauro, in Calabria, and those of Antwerp and Rotterdam. In these last two ports, among the largest in Europe, controls have increased, opening up new avenues. As Pietschmann explains, international mafias—41% of which focus on cocaine—seek out "smaller ports that lack such good security controls."

European organizations have set up shop directly at the source, but another phenomenon of recent years, as noted in Europol's Socta report, is that the networks "cooperate to share resources" and "the risk of importing large quantities of cocaine." Each side is in charge of one stage of the operation.

The violence associated

In Colombia, major crops are located in three states near Ecuador—Cauca, Nariño, and Putumayo—and one in the north, San Andrés. In some municipalities, according to Pietschmann, 40% of GDP depends on this business. Former FARC and National Liberation Army (ELN) combatants control production and distribution—Spain is the country where the most Colombians are arrested in connection with white powder—and the presence of guerrilla groups leads to more violence. This continues in Colombia and Ecuador, where the homicide rate has increased sixfold in three years, coinciding with the country's emergence as one of the world's major distributors. Since the 1990s, Colombian cartels have shipped drugs through Mexico to reach the United States. In the port of Manzanillo, Mexico, where the Jalisco Nueva Generación, Los Mezcales, and Sinaloa cartels operate, a homicide rate of 154 per 100,000 inhabitants was recorded in 2024 (in the United States it is 5.9 and in Catalonia it is below 1).