Cocaine seizures in Europe’s biggest importing countries, the Netherlands and Belgium, have fallen sharply this year as stricter enforcement forces drug traffickers to focus more on ports in southern and northern Europe.

Rotterdam and Antwerp, the bloc’s largest cargo ports, seized just over half the amount of cocaine in the first half of 2024 compared to the same period last year. Belgian customs seized 22 tonnes, down from 43 tonnes, while Dutch customs seized 16 tonnes, down from 28 tonnes, according to the latest figures.

Both countries have significantly stepped up their efforts to intercept drugs and prevent drug-related violence, including through increased police presence, more advanced customs equipment and cooperation with source countries in Latin America.

Drug gangs also suffered a major blow after authorities in March 2021 managed to crack an encrypted messaging network, known as Sky ECC, that was widely used by drug gangs.

But this progress comes at a price for other countries.

“The Spanish counterparts are now under increasing pressure because the criminals have decided that Antwerp and Rotterdam are perhaps less attractive now,” Kristian Vanderwaeren, the head of Belgian customs, told POLITICO. “They are now focusing more on Spain.”

“We also see more and more cocaine seizures going to Scandinavian countries,” Bob Van den Berghe, regional coordinator for the Container Inspection Program at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), told POLITICO. “We see Sweden. We see Denmark.”

It’s a game of Whac-A-Mole that experts warned about. Tackling drug trafficking in one port causes gangs to move their activities to other ports where they face less resistance. And that means the drug violence that plagues Antwerp and Rotterdam will also seep further into Europe.

In 2022, there were 81 drug-related shootings and explosions in Antwerp, as gang warfare spilled onto the streets. Dockworkers have also been targeted. In November, two dockworkers were tied up and held at knifepoint in a customs building in an alleged attempt by gangs to steal back seized drugs.

For this reason, some politicians argue that only an EU-wide plan can effectively combat drug trafficking.

“These figures show that we need a European approach to drug trafficking,” Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said in a statement shared with POLITICO in response to the Belgian and Dutch customs figures.

Earlier this year, the European Commission and the then Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU launched a Port Alliance, an initiative to connect governments, law enforcement agencies, and port and shipping companies to enhance port security and keep drugs out.

So far, 31 ports have joined the effort, Johansson said. “You need a network to fight a network,” he added.

She also argues that this network should extend across the Atlantic. Johansson has made several visits to Latin America, accompanied by national ministers, including Belgian Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden.

But not all drug shipments can be traced back to Latin America.

Surprisingly, the West African country of Sierra Leone tops the list of countries where the cocaine seized in Antwerp could have come from, according to Belgian customs.

Perhaps it is a sign that, as a result of a “fixation” on Latin America, cocaine smuggled via new routes has gone unnoticed, Belgian customs chief Vanderwaeren admitted.

“Maybe they tried to bypass us via the West African routes,” he said.

New methods of smuggling are also booming, such as importing coca paste instead of cocaine. Coca paste is cheaper and therefore less likely to get lost in transit.

“We have discovered laboratories in the European Union that specialize in processing coca paste into street cocaine,” Europol spokesman Jan Op Gen Oorth said in a statement shared with POLITICO.

With information from POLITICO