In Europe ordering cocaine is as easy as ordering pizza; 'customers' avail 20 minutes delivery: Report
Cocaine
Europe has become a spectator to a "tsunami"of cocaine, and getting the drug in big cities has become as easy as ordering a pizza. People using messaging applications like WhatsApp and Signal place an order, and within 20 minutes a dealer shows up at their door.
As Police commissioner Virginie Lahaye puts it, now the process of "scoring"is, "much easier than having to go to some grim place in the suburbs."
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Lahaye, the head of the Paris drug squad, was quoted by AFP as saying, "Consumers prefer to go on a platform and have their drugs delivered by a guy who looks like a Deliveroo rider."
European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) reports that in 2021, around 3.5 million Europeans took cocaine. This is four times what the European population consumed 20 years back.
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The head of Belgian federal police, Eric Snoeck, calls it a “tsunami” of cocaine. According to Europol, in 2021, 240 tonnes of the drug were seized. This is again a huge increase from the almost one-fifth quantity seized just a decade ago.
"Kidnappings, torture and hits: there is so much money at stake that the criminal organisations have brought the cartels’ methods to our shores,"said French anti-drug office’s Stephanie Cherbonnier.
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Reportedly, with Europe emerging as one of the most lucrative markets for the "big drug cartels", corruption and extreme violence that served them well in South America have also emerged as their SOP in Europe.
At the street level, as per Europol estimates, Europe’s cocaine market is worth between 7.6 and 10.5 billion euros (8.24 to 11.39 USD).
(With inputs from agencies)
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