A recent international anti-drug operation led by Colombia that seized 1,400 tons of drugs laid bare the size and complexity of the global drug trade, and suggested supercharged international operations may be more common in the future.
The fourteenth edition of Operation Orion, Colombia’s long-running anti-drug trafficking push, brought together institutions from 62 nations to combat the illegal drug business and parallel illicit activities in and around Colombia, the world’s principal cocaine producing nation.
The 1,400 tons of drugs seized during the 45-day-long operation were worth an estimated $8.5 billion, according to a November 27 press release from Colombia’s Ministry of Defense.
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In addition to 225 tons of cocaine, authorities seized over 1,000 tons of marijuana, 66 vessels, and arrested more than 400 alleged members of criminal organizations.
“These results … show us that synergy between international allies is indispensable in continuing to confront transnational criminal networks,” the commander of the Colombian navy, Juan Ricardo Rozo Obregón, said during a presentation of the operation’s results.
Forces uncovered a new route for drug trafficking by narco -submarines between Latin America and Australia after discovering a sub carrying 5 tons of cocaine 4,800 kilometers (about 3,000 miles) off Colombia’s Pacific coast. They seized six narco -submarines in total during the operation.
As the drug trade becomes ever more global and trafficking groups continue evolving from traditional top-down organizations to horizontal networks, international cooperation through mega operations like Orion may have to do the same.
“Operation Orion is getting bigger and bigger, not only in the amount of drugs seized but in the number of agencies and countries involved. That’s great because it takes a network to combat a network,” Sjoerd Top, executive director of the European Union’s Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre (MAOC), which took part in Operation Orion, told InSight Crime.
Networks, Not Cartels
The operation’s results show once again that vertically-integrated, monolithic criminal groups no longer dominate drug trafficking. The globalized nature of the drug trade means the process of producing, transporting, and selling most drugs is split between different groups that specialize in distinct stages of the supply chain. Subcontracting of smaller criminal groups by larger organizations is now standard.
In Ecuador, for example, local gangs like the Tiguerones and Choneros are subcontracted by larger regional criminal groups to move drugs to Ecuador’s ports, helping to fuel record levels of violence. The larger groups involved in Ecuador include Mexico’s Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación – CJNG) and Sinaloa Cartel (Cartel de Sinaloa). In Mexico, Colombia, and parts of Central America and the Caribbean, myriad groups play similar disparate, yet vital roles along the supply chain.
Drug trafficking organizations have evolved in recent years and are now “adaptive, complex systems,” said Dr. Víctor Hugo Guerra Hernández at a press conference for the far-reaching investigation. “When we look at the Medellín Cartel … the structure was pyramidal. It was an organization with a base and one actor at the top, Pablo Escobar.”
Today, however, groups including the CJNG or Colombia’s Gaitanistas, also known as the Gulf Clan, Urabeños, and Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia – AGC) are a network, Hernández added. “This system adapts itself to the complexity of the market. When we intervene with one of the system’s actors, this doesn’t necessarily mean we’ve dismantled or taken apart this criminal organization,” he explained.
To keep pace with this criminal evolution, authorities in different countries are attempting to cooperate more closely and share intelligence.
The ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp in the Netherlands and Belgium have been the most prominent ports of entry into Europe for cocaine for years. But they recently posted reduced cocaine seizure figures that they claimed were the result of international alliances in anti-narcotics.
The Cocaine Explosion
Criminal networks are evolving in part as a response to the dramatic increase in demand for cocaine in key consumer markets like Europe, which shows no sign of slowing. According to a recent report from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), cocaine consumption in Europe has expanded from major cities into small towns as the drug becomes more accessible across the continent.
Demand in emerging markets in parts of Africa and Asia is also growing, and Australia’s historic 2.3-ton cocaine seizure made on December 1 suggests the country is also a budding market for cocaine traffickers. In 2022, a kilogram of cocaine could fetch up to $266,000 in eastern Australia, according to the country’s federal police.
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This record-breaking demand is being fed by unparalleled levels of cocaine cultivation and production in Colombia. This year, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported that the country’s coca cultivation had risen 10% between 2022 and 2023 to 253,000 hectares, expanding potential cocaine production by 53%. Colombia also reported it had seized 1,764 tons of cocaine this year, the highest amount ever.
And neighboring countries are reporting the same. Peru, the second-largest cocaine-producing nation on the planet, also made record seizures this year. Ecuador and the Dominican Republic, two key cocaine hubs, both show historic seizure figures, and Guatemala, which plays an important role for cocaine headed to the United States, registered its highest seizures in five years.
In addition to a more specialized supply chain, traffickers are adapting their trafficking methods. European criminal groups are increasingly pooling resources and sharing trafficking infrastructure for mutual benefit, while traffickers are sending larger amounts of coca paste – a cheaper, cruder form of cocaine hydrochloride that requires processing to be turned into cocaine powder – rather than cocaine powder, to Europe, where it is then processed, said MAOC’s Sjoerd Top.
Synthetic Drugs’ Global Nature
On top of this is the development of synthetic drugs like methamphetamine and fentanyl in Mexico, chemical compounds created in labs without the need for plant-based ingredients.
Though only 198 kilograms of methamphetamine was seized by Operation Orion, the European Union Drug Agency suggests its use is increasing in North America and Asia. At the same time, European consumption remains stable but is spreading. On December 1, Mexican authorities announced they had seized 290 kilograms of the drug in Veracruz, destined for Cameroon in West Africa.
Methamphetamine consumption is well-established in Mexico and the United States. However, during fieldwork in Sinaloa, one of the epicenters of methamphetamine production, one drug trafficker told InSight Crime that his organization’s goal was to “send crystal [methamphetamine] all over the world.”
Feature image: The Colombian navy’s presentation of Operation Orion. Credit: Colombian Government.