Portugal is one of the ports of entry for cocaine into Europe by sea – Portugal

Portugal is named in a UN report released this Thursday as one of the ports of entry for cocaine into Europe by sea and where part of the traffic will be managed by groups based in Spain, namely Galicia.

According to the Global Report on Cocaine 2023, released by the United Nations Agency for Drugs and Crime (UNODC), there are two main channels for the entry of cocaine into Western and Central Europe: the first via ports in Belgium, Netherlands, Germany and the North Sea and a second via the coast and ports of Portugal and Spain.

The report points out that Portugal’s location – and its extensive Atlantic coastline – make the country “a natural arrival point for cocaine to be unloaded from vessels”.

The Algarve region, in addition to Madeira and the Azores, stands out for the illegal drug trade in legitimate cargo and where cocaine arrives mainly via pleasure boats.

However, “significant amounts” of cocaine are trafficked through the main ports, such as Setúbal, where it arrives concealed in legal merchandise. The district recorded the largest seizures of cocaine in Portugal in 2020, according to the report.

The document states that “some of the trafficking activity” of cocaine in Portugal “appears to be managed by groups based in Spain”, namely from Galicia. Part of the cocaine destined for Galicia is sent to the north of Portugal, unloaded at night on a beach, and then on to the Spanish region by road.

The United Nations Agency for Drugs and Crime highlights that in 2020 400 kilos of cocaine were seized in the district of Viana do Castelo, bordering Galicia, making it the fifth district in mainland Portugal with the most seizures of this drug.

In Galicia, according to the report, criminal groups “maintain longstanding ties” with Colombian groups to operate cocaine trafficking routes, with drug traffickers collecting drugs from ships off the Azores or Cape Verde and taking them to land. on sailboats or fishing boats.

Groups of Galician drug traffickers “are also active in the redistribution”, by land, of heroin to Portugal and Spain.