Spain fighting hard to lose status as the drug gateway to Europe

Spain, the main gateway into Europe for cocaine and hashish, has stepped up the fight against drug trafficking by rings which are shifting their tactics to keep their access to the lucrative European market.

“We are winning battles but it will be difficult to win the war,” said the head of the anti-cocaine squad of the anti-drugs unit of Spain’s national police force, Jose Antonio Rodriguez.

“Traffickers have money on their side, a lack of scruples and they can develop their activities without limit.”

Spain’s proximity to Morocco and its easy access to the Atlantic Ocean make it “a natural entry point for drug shipments for all of Europe,” said Rodriguez.

Cocaine arrives in Spain from Latin America in Galicia, a northwestern region whose rugged coastline is dotted with coves and inlets, and in the southern port of Cadiz, and is then shipped overland by truck to France, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands.

Latin American drug rings can rely on the help of strong local networks in Africa to help move their narcotics to Europe. Groups in the region such as Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb cooperate with them and they get paid to transport drugs to north Africa.

A multiplication of police operations against drug trafficking in Galicia has diverted cocaine smugglers to the south of Europe, said Susanne Gratius, an analyst with FRIDE, a think tank specialising in European affairs, who wrote a report about the fight against drug trafficking for the European Parliament.

“Very often drugs no longer arrive directly from Latin America, instead they pass through Africa using the traditional routes for hashish trafficking,” she said.


Over the past decade the number of cocaine consumers in Europe has doubled while demand for the drug has plunged by 33 percent in the United States, said

In response European nations have reinforced regional cooperation as well as their cooperation with police forces in Latin America to stop the flow of cocaine.

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