The global production of cocaine has reached record levels, as a result of the huge increase in demand after the end of the isolation due to the pandemic.
A report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime states that the cultivation of the cannabis plant increased by 35% between 2021 and 2022, a record figure.
According to the report, in addition to the traditional epicenters, new traffic bases have opened in west and central Africa. The report also says traffickers are increasingly using international postal services to ship their product to the consumer.
The largest markets for cocaine remain Europe and North America, followed by South America, Central America and the Caribbean.
According to the report, Colombia still dominates traffic routes, even though European ones have developed. The report also reveals that Mexican and Balkan criminal groups, including Albanian ones, have gotten even closer to the production centers in order to gain access to the cocaine supply.
In 2021, A2 CNN carried out a special report from Ecuador, where the role of Albanian criminal groups in the trafficking of cocaine from South America to Europe, through our country and the main ports of the Old Continent was evident.
In Ukraine, the cocaine market was growing, but since the start of the Russian invasion in February last year, demand has dropped significantly.
