Cartels from Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela, Mexico and the US are active in at least 12 European countries, a four-month investigation by The Guardian has concluded. The investigation found they “may be acting in 16 countries” across Europe.
The expansion has unfolded alongside a sharp rise in cocaine seizures, which surged by 471% across Europe between 2014 and 2024. The European market brings significantly higher profit margins for cartels than the US market. European consumers account for approximately one-quarter of the global cocaine supply.
Since the start of the current decade, European law enforcement agencies have seized larger total quantities of cocaine than their counterparts in the United States.
The organisations identified as operating in Europe include Mexico's Sinaloa cartel and the Jalisco New Generation cartel, known as CJNG. Colombia's Clan del Golfo mafia, the guerrilla organisation ELN and dissident factions of FARC have also been identified as operating there.
Brazil's Primeiro Comando da Capital, or PCC, and Comando Vermelho, or CV, have likewise been identified as operating in Europe. An unpublished report by the São Paulo public prosecutor's office says the PCC operates in 16 European countries, including the UK, Ireland, Iceland, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey.
Venezuela's Tren de Aragua, alongside the US-originated Barrio 18 and MS-13 gangs, have also been identified as operating in Europe.
Latin American organisations have built a more prominent presence in Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium and France. Criminal activity linked to Latin American groups has also been noted in Germany, Romania, Croatia and Slovakia, while the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime includes Bulgaria among European countries with a Latin American cartel presence.
Spain, the Netherlands and France remain primary entry points for cocaine trafficking. Daniel Brombacher, a political scientist and director of the Europe Observatory at Gi-Toc, said Mexican-run methamphetamine laboratories have been discovered in southern France, north-eastern Poland and Brandenburg, south of Berlin.
The Guardian's findings describe routes that have developed into deeply entrenched local networks. The investigation drew on law-enforcement and intelligence databases and interviews with judges, prosecutors and security experts across eight nations.
European operations have a longer history than the recent rise in seizures suggests. Since at least the 1980s, Colombian groups including the Cali and Medellín cartels had footholds in parts of Spain, including Galicia. Europol warned in 2013 of the rise of Latin American criminal organisations in Europe.
In a report this year, Europol said Latin American criminal networks it considers among the most threatening have settled in the EU and direct operations from there.
Comments (0)