Europe’s drug trade expands as violence and seizures rise

Western and Central Europe is now the world’s second-largest cocaine market, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, and drug use has increased since 2015. In Eastern Europe, 1.3 percent of people injected drugs in 2024, the highest prevalence worldwide. Across the EU, the amount of methamphetamine seized between 2014 and 2024 multiplied by 11; cocaine seizures rose fivefold.

A Guardian investigation linked the increase in cocaine trafficking to the growing presence of Latin American criminal networks in Europe and their close ties with local mafias. A 2023 Eurojust report said half of homicides recorded in Europe were directly connected to drug trafficking. In Brussels, 74 shootings were recorded from January to September 2026, leaving two people dead and 28 injured.

The European Parliament voted last month for a resolution calling for a coordinated EU crackdown on trafficking networks. It seeks more funding for police equipment, tighter port security and closer cooperation among customs, law enforcement and judicial authorities. While right-wing and far-right politicians have called for tougher punishment, other voices argue that social conditions also need attention.

French anti-mafia activist Amine Kessaci, 23, says gangs “fill a void” left by a lack of public services, presenting an illusion of economic opportunity to teenagers from precarious families. His brother Brahim, recruited by a drug gang as a teenager, was shot and burned in a car in 2020. Kessaci is now a member of France’s Green party.

Belgium’s national drugs commissioner, Ine Van Wymersch, says young people in Brussels are especially vulnerable: one third live below the poverty line, making them, in her words, an “easy-to-recruit” and “disposable” workforce for criminal organisations. She warns that repression can be counterproductive and calls for support for parents, better access to public neighbourhood facilities and work experience tailored to young people. Her proposals also include a “Child File” from birth to identify risk factors such as poverty, family histories of crime and low levels of education, with early intervention intended to prevent recruitment.