Cocaine market worth €9.1bn yearly across EU

A booming cocaine trade has driven the value of the European drugs market to at least €30bn annually, according to a major report.

The EU’s drug and police agencies estimate the cocaine market is worth at least €9.1bn — up 60% on just three years ago.

The EU Drug Markets Report 2019, conducted by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction and Europol, is based on 2017 data. The last analysis, published in 2016, was based on 2013 statistics.

The headline estimates, which are minimum valuations, show:

• Total illegal drugs market is worth €30bn per year, compared to €24bn in 2016 (+25%);
• Cannabis market is worth €11.6bn, compared to €9.3bn in 2016 (+25%);
• Cocaine market worth €9.1bn, compared to €5.7bn (+60%);
• Heroin market worth €7.4bn, compared to €6.8bn (+8%).

The report said the early indications for 2018 suggested cocaine hauls would be “even larger”.

It said 50 tonnes of cocaine had been seized in the port of Antwerp (Europe’s second-biggest after Rotterdam) — larger than that seized in the whole of Belgium in 2017.

Michael O’Sullivan, director of the Maritime Analysis Operations Centre Narcotics (MAOC-N), an EU drugs task force targeting the Atlantic trade, said the cocaine valuations showed a “huge increase”.

But he pointed out that since 2017, seizures of cocaine have continued to surge and cited the interception of 10 tonnes of cocaine off Cape Verde, Africa, in February this year.

That consignment, bound for Europe, was the biggest ever haul of cocaine on this side of the Atlantic.

“2019 was MAOC’s most successful year yet. We broke records for seizures of cocaine and cannabis, particularly cocaine,” said Mr O’Sullivan.

By June, MAOC had seized 19 tonnes of cocaine, compared to 16 tonnes in 2018, a previous record year.

Mr O’Sullivan, a former Garda Assistant Commissioner, said: “They talk about a tsunami coming in the cocaine market — well, it has landed.”

The Irish Examiner reported last February that gardaí had seized 159kgs of cocaine in 2018, compared to 81kgs in 2017. Last year included captures of 66kgs, 49kgs and 36kgs — compared to the largest hauls in 2017 of 20kgs and two 10kg seizures of 10kgs.

This year, Revenue seized 35kgs of cocaine at Rosslare Port last July, with 20kgs being seized earlier this month by local gardaí in Drogheda, Co Louth.

The report said much of the cocaine moved by sea and that the “exploitation of the maritime trade constitutes a growing threat”.

It said the equivalent of 750m 20ft containers were transported by sea every year, with fewer than 2% being screened.

The report also said there was “evidence of a potential threat from increased heroin availability in Europe”. Estimates of opium production in Afghanistan were at “historically high levels”, with seizures of heroin increasing in Turkey — the main transport hub into Europe.

It said seizures of heroin have increased in both 2016 and 2017.