European report on cocaine: Albanian criminal networks empowered

According to the “report, several Albanian-speaking criminal networks have made successful efforts to apply cocaine trafficking from production or transit countries in South America to minority distribution within the European Union, and more broadly,”.

The report states that “for years, international cocaine importers worked separately from the majority businessmen and gangs distributing drugs on the street, but an Albanian criminal network abandoned this model and established import and distribution control”.

According to the Ecuador-based report “rrjet used sophisticated coded communication tools, the organisation's leader, directly negotiated with South American drug cartels and organised large cocaine shipments to Europe's main ports, as well as with the help of fellow workers based in Italy, the Netherlands and Albania, also organised distribution for users throughout Europe”.

The report on cocaine trafficking in Europe states that “most of the criminal networks reported at Europol have been active for more than 10 years, with some actors playing a key role for decades, such as Italian networks, while young players are looking for a larger share of the cocaine market. like Albanian, Belgian, British, Dutch, French, Irish, Moroccan, Serbian, Spanish and Turkish networks”.

Criminal networks from the Western Balkans region have emerged in the last 10 years as leading players in the EU cocaine market”, the report estimates.

Reflecting on the amounts of cocaine seized during police operations in 2020 and 2021 the report estimates that cocaine trafficking through ports in the Western Balkan region, particularly in Albania and Montenegro, may have increased.

“About 143kg were seized at the port of Durres, Albania in April 2021, while 1.4 tonnes were seized in August 2021 and 500kg in January 2022 at the port of Tivar, Montenegro”, the report said.

The report also cites the suspicion of Montenegrin authorities that more than 3 tonnes were smuggled through the port of Tivar in the second half of 2021 as Kosovo seized a 400kg of cocaine in May 2021 after smuggling from Albania through the port of Durres”.

However, the report estimates, from the data of confiscated cases cocaine smuggling in the Western Balkan region is more limited in scope than in Western Europe,

According to the 2020 European Union countries' retail cocaine market report, there was a value, masse about 10.5 billion euros, and on the basis of market weight in proportion to other types of cocaine was ranked second after cannabis.