The massive narcotics trade across the continent is fuelling ‘unprecedented’ levels of violence.
Children shoot at other children with Kalashnikovs. Adolescents unload cocaine off container ports. And a torture chamber sits hidden among shipping containers in a Dutch forest.
This is the new reality for parts of Europe maligned by the record number of illicit narcotics pouring in and out of the continent. A drug market now worth tens of billions of euros is fuelling warring gangs to employ “unprecedented” levels of violence against each other, European policy bosses warned on Thursday.
The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) and Europol, the continent's law enforcement agency, jointly hosted a news conference to present their most recent assessment of the drug market in Europe, which they estimated to be worth roughly €30 billion annually. In 2022, exports of ecstasy and imports of cocaine both hit record highs. According to the agencies, cocaine and cannabis are the main causes of violence.
Although the extent of the issue was not quantified by the authorities, Alexis Goosdeel, the director of the EMCDDA, stated that drug-related violence in Europe is currently at a level similar to that of Central America.
"It's a part of life in the European Union," he stated.
Catherine De Bolle, Executive Director of Europol, stated: "We even found torture rooms in the EU."
This is something we've never seen before. "In Latin America, this was utilised, but not in the EU," she stated during the press conference.
De Bolle did not name the specific case to which she was alluding, but there has only been one documented finding of "torture containers" in Europe, which was made public in 2020 close to the Rotterdam port.
Although it is "impossible to know" how common torture chambers are in Europe, Chris Dalby, the director of the Netherlands-based consulting firm World of Crime, told POLITICO that the case was "certainly a wake-up call about the increasing severity of gang violence in Europe."
An increasingly pressing issue is the age distribution of those employed in black marketplaces. Marseille's gangs are using teenagers more and more as drug dealers or police spotters, which has resulted in kids using Kalashnikovs to kill one other. Numerous teenagers who were hired to remove large amounts of cocaine from cargo containers have been apprehended by authorities in the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam.
According to De Bolle of Europol, "whole families are living off the income they get through young people working for criminal groups."
Ways To React:
The official response has been inconsistent; some politicians have called for stricter laws and increased funding for security measures, while others contend that legalising drugs is long overdue and that drug prohibition is ineffective.
Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema warned the country that failing to adopt market regulation, government monopolies, or medical provision could result in the country becoming a "narco-state" in an opinion piece published in January in the Guardian.
By strengthening port security and fostering private-sector cooperation through the recently established European Ports Alliance, Belgium and its EU Council chair have taken a more conventional route.
During a visit to Bolivia in February, Belgian Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden signed a joint declaration with Latin American nations pledging "to effectively address all aspects of the global drug issue" during the following five years.
But some Latin American nations, including Ecuador and Colombia, have recommended that European leaders take a closer look at their own region. EMCDDA data show that some of the world's cities with the highest per capita rates of cocaine consumption are Brussels, Amsterdam, Lisbon, and Tarragona.
According to Goosdeel, drug users should not always be viewed as criminals, but it is a duty that Europeans should be aware of.
"Now is not the moment to start a conflict with customers. It's a battle to keep our people safe," he declared.
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