What's really going on with the global drug trade?

Ever since Hot Press launched in 1977, we’ve been calling for the decriminalisation of personal drug use in Ireland and for those with addiction issues to be treated with compassion.

Along the way, the high-profile likes of Lemmy, Pete Doherty, Howard Marks, Duff McKagan, Moby, Margo Price, Steven Tyler, Marianne Faithful, Matty Healy, Ian Brown and Noel and Liam Gallagher have shared their pharmaceutical adventures with us.

We’ve also spoken to numerous Ministers for Drugs, top cops in Ireland and abroad, doctors, dealers and people with lived and living experience, and met the sniffer dogs at Garda HQ in the Phoenix Park who are very good girls and boys!

This year we’ve taken the logical next step and launched Dealing With Drugs, a monthly podcast co-hosted by our Assistant Editor Stuart Clark and international drug policy expert Tony Duffin, who was formerly the CEO of the groundbreaking Ana Liffey Drug Project in Dublin.

In the first few episodes, we’ve reported on the widespread use of drugs by military personnel on the frontline in Ukraine and what’s simultaneously going on in Russia; heard how President Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jnr are proving hazardous to America’s health; and had candid conversations with Irvine Welsh and Damien Dempsey about how drugs have impacted on their respective communities.

We’ve also got a masterclass in how the international drug trade bolts together from Daniel Brombacher, the Director of the Europe Observatory for the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime, which is based in Geneva. The data they produce informs drug policy across the EU and beyond.

Here’s a taster of what was said...

Stuart Clark: First of all, Daniel, tell us about the work your organisation does.

Daniel Brombacher: The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime is a leading international civil society organisation, which is committed to countering the emerging and fast developing phenomenon of transnational organised crime.

I am leading the Europe Observatory of Organised Crime within the organisation. Europe is very connected to other world regions in terms of illicit flows and illicit markets and also of criminal actors. So Europe is quite a hotspot when it comes to organised crime.

When studying drug markets across Europe and beyond recently, what’s the most worrying thing you’ve come across?

The cocaine oversupply situation in Europe and, in particular, ‘The Crack Boom’ in Western Europe, because the effects on public safety have been quite massive in the last few years. We have never had such cheap cocaine at such high purity as in the past number of years.

Purity is no longer going up, but wholesale prices have been going down, despite the massive efforts of European authorities and the massive seizures. Prices are down at a historical level.

Are Mexican cartels the main suppliers in the international cocaine trade?

No, the biggest players are Italian mafia groups, in particular the ‘Ndrangheta. Western Balkan organised crime groups play a significant role in the supply chain of cocaine to Europe.

But then, there’s also a very broad array of other criminal actors, some of them from South America, like Brazil, for example. But then you see many, many different European organised crime groups seeking direct access to supply sources in South America.

You have seen Irish groups, you see German groups, Spaniards and French. So it’s quite diverse and it’s diversified because the cocaine market has become very lucrative. So the cocaine market is some sort of Champions League of organised crime in Europe.

So many different groups have sought to enter the market in the past number of years. And what we have seen is the emergence of a crime-as-a-service culture along the supply chain. So not necessarily every European group who wants to sell cocaine, or traffic cocaine, within Europe needs to have a presence in Latin America.

You can easily pay a cocaine broker that organises cocaine shipments for you, that’s a completely new situation that we’re seeing right now.

How violent does the trade get? We know about the shooting and the murders in Mexico, but does that violence spill over into Europe?

A lot of the major players in this business make an effort not to create any violent incidents and, by that, not create any public response to it. But as with any criminal market, if competition increases, then there is also a higher chance that violence evolves.

You don’t see violence throughout Europe. For example, in countries like Germany, there are not high levels or very marked levels of violence in the cocaine trade. But in other European countries, yes, you have it. You see that in the Netherlands, you see it in France, you see it in Belgium, you see it in Sweden, but maybe not in the UK or in Germany or Ireland.

There have been several high-profile seizures recently of narco submarines, which are amazing looking things. How sophisticated are the drug cartels nowadays with their tech?

One of the side-effects of this cocaine boom is that organised crime has had access to way more of what we may call ‘venture capital’ than in the past. So, there’s more money available from this booming market, for example, to invest in corruption, to invest in better armament, to invest in better concealment methods, but also in other means of transportation.

So, the narco submarines, sometimes even crossing the whole Atlantic, are definitely one expression of organised crime investing heavily to avoid risk and detection.

Can you explain the role of the dark web in the ketamine trade?

On social media channels like Telegram, you can easily buy smaller amounts. And a lot of end users, they would order their drug on Telegram. They would not necessarily go on the dark web. But if you are a Telegram dealer, you would get your supply from the dark web. Most of these dark web platforms are, to some degree, linked to Asia.

So, we see the supply not only of ketamine, but also of other drugs and the necessary precursors, for example, for synthetic caffeinates as well. Coming from Asia, they are imported by resellers in Europe, quite often in the Netherlands, for example, but also in other countries. And then smaller amounts are resold on Telegram to final end users.

How has liberal cannabis policy in parts of Europe impacted the illegal trade?

Astonishingly, very little so far, but our evidence base is limited because some countries, like Germany, only legalised cannabis for recreational purposes last year.

In Germany, we don’t have a legal supply system in place. It was only legalised for home growing and growing in so-called cannabis clubs.

Medical cannabis, which had been legal in Germany already since 2017, has become an illicit source for recreational cannabis. There was a boom in online platforms that allowed users to quite easily get a prescription for medical cannabis.

The government has realised that this has become a major challenge. So, they announced only two weeks ago that they will change again and prohibit online prescriptions for medical cannabis. And in other countries, like in Luxembourg, we have a similar situation where only home growing is allowed.

There is an experiment in Switzerland where they want to legalise the full supply chain of cannabis, but this is not in effect in the whole country yet.

Still, supply is coming through the coffee shops in the Netherlands from organised crime. Since supply has not been regulated fully in these countries, there has been very little effect so far on organised crime and on the illicit market.

Can you briefly explain how cocaine and methamphetamine production affects places like the Amazon?

Coca cultivation is moving deeper and deeper into pristine rainforest areas to avoid detection. Once coca moves in, the rest of civilisation follows. You start with coca, but then cattle ranching comes in, and then more slash and burn and deforestation is happening.

Coca has very often been a first mover of colonising protected areas. That has been a major problem. Then you have cocaine production, which goes hand-in-hand with the use of chemicals. And these chemicals very often end up in rivers in the area or in the soil, basically poisoning the ecosystem and threatening biodiversity. And then cocaine needs to leave these areas.

For synthetic rock production, it’s slightly different, because you don’t have any agriculture at the lower end of the supply chain. But when you look, for example, at the Netherlands and Belgium, you have a lot of synthetic rock production, especially of MDMA and amphetamines.

There is no legal way of disposing of the chemicals used in this production. So, they just end up in canals, in forests, somewhere in nature.

• Our extended interview with Daniel Brombacher can be found on episode two of Dealing With Drugs, available wherever you get your podcasts. Episode three, a cocaine special, will be available soon.