A customs officer takes a sample of some of the confiscated cocaine from the largest single cocaine seizure in Bavaria to date, which is examined with a test tube.
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Cocaine production is at its highest level on record, with post-pandemic demand surging and new trading hubs emerging, according to a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
The United Nations Global Report on Cocaine 2023 says that over the past two years, new smuggling hubs have emerged in West and Central Africa in the multi-billion dollar industry. New improvements and innovations in the cultivation of the coca bush and the switch from the coca plant to cocaine have also contributed to the production boom – which has grown by 35% between 2021 and 2022 to a record level.
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“The Covid-19 pandemic has been disruptive to drug markets. With international travel severely restricted, manufacturers struggled to get their product to market. Nightclubs and bars have been shut down as officials step up efforts to combat the virus, leading to a slump in demand for drugs like cocaine,” the report said.
“However, the latest data suggests that this slump had little impact on longer-term trends. The global supply of cocaine is at record levels,” it said. Nearly 2,000 tons of cocaine were produced in 2020, a continuation of a “dramatic increase in manufacturing that began in 2014 when totals were less than half of today’s levels,” the report said.
Cultivation of coca bushes doubled between 2013 and 2017 and then rose sharply again in 2021, the report said. The process of converting coca bush into cocaine hydrochloride was also significantly improved.
Cocaine production requires steeping of harvested coca leaves in gasoline and other chemicals such as ether, sulfuric acid, ammonia to allow extraction of cocaine hydrochloride. The gasoline and solvents are then drained off and the cocaine base solidifies into a paste that is boiled until the liquid and other chemicals have evaporated, creating “bricks” containing cocaine hydrochloride.
These bricks are packaged and resold, and processed with additional chemicals like hydrochloric acid, ammonia, and potassium salt to make cocaine powder.
Increasing demand for cocaine
Despite continued efforts by law enforcement to crack down on cocaine use, global demand for the drug has only increased.
“Demand has continued to grow, with most regions seeing steady increases
Number of users in the last ten years. Although these increases can be partially explained by population growth, there is also an increasing prevalence of cocaine use,” the report said.
At the same time, eavesdropping by authorities is increasing. And that law enforcement wiretapping is actually growing faster than production, the report says, meaning “prohibition has curbed the growth in the amount of cocaine available for consumption around the world.”
An anti-drug police officer stands while a police helicopter flies over a coca field during an operation in Tumaco, Narino Department, Colombia, Tuesday, May 8, 2019.
Nicolo Filippo Rosso Bloomberg | Getty Images
Demand remains highest in North America, which accounted for 30% of global demand for the drug in 2020, the highest share globally, according to the UN. Central and South America and the Caribbean ranked second with 24% of cocaine users in 2020. Western and Central Europe ranked third with 21%, and fourth was the continent of Africa with 9% of global use.
Much of the known information about the rise in cocaine was found by analyzing sewage data.
New transit zones
Coca bush cultivation is still concentrated in three countries: Colombia with 61% of the total, Peru with 26% and Bolivia with 13%.
Cocaine seizures are highest in South and Central America and the Caribbean, accounting for 72% of all seizures worldwide, followed by Western and Central Europe with 15% and North America with 12%.
U.S. Coast Guard personnel stand on the deck of Cutter James as they offload approximately $1.06 billion worth of cocaine and marijuana in the Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida February 17, 2022.
Chandan Khanna | AFP | Getty Images
Meanwhile, data on law enforcement seizures indicated that “the role of Africa, particularly West and Central Africa, as a transit zone for cocaine on its way to markets in Europe has increased significantly since 2019,” the report said.
“Both the total amount seized in Africa and the number of large-scale seizures appear to have reached record highs in 2021.”
Although usage is not yet high in these regions, the potential for growth is a serious risk, the report warned.
Parcel and courier services are used up to transport drugs
The suspension of so many passenger flights during the Covid-19 pandemic has severely limited drug traffickers’ ability to use drug couriers to transport drugs internationally. As a result, the use of international postal services to smuggle cocaine has skyrocketed and has remained high, UN research has found.
“Some countries in West Africa have seen a significant increase in [parcel and courier] Services to smuggle small amounts of cocaine into Europe and beyond. In Costa Rica, small amounts of cocaine were shipped to Asia, Africa and Europe hidden in goods such as books, religious images and vehicle parts,” the report said.
“The pandemic may have accelerated the trend, but traffickers have already increased their use of international postal services to bring cocaine to Europe,” it said. “Evidence from Spain and Argentina points to a longer-term decline in the use of drug couriers on passenger flights. Both countries have recorded cases of larger shipments being hidden in unaccompanied baggage.”
According to the report, the UK has seen a “significant increase” in cocaine seizures by “express parcel and post”.
Fishing and merchant ships are also increasingly used for smuggling cocaine, as are containers on container ships, where shell companies and forged papers are used to give the appearance of legitimate deals.
Drug trafficking via submarines is also on the rise, in some cases using purpose-built submarines, often unmanned and pre-programmed to get to the desired destination.
just this week, Spanish authorities found what they said was an empty drug submarine off the north coast of Spain near Galicia, which is known as a hub for the international drug trade. They believe it was transporting cocaine from Colombia to Spain and that the crew had already gotten away with the sub’s contents.
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