Cooperation to close the Atlantic cocaine maritime route

Why does it matter?

The production and trafficking of cocaine continue to reach record highs. The supply of this illicit substance has intensified, but so have seizures carried out by law enforcement authorities across much of the world. Colombia, the world’s main producer of coca, is registering record levels of cocaine seizures.

According to data from InSight Crime, an investigative and journalistic organisation specialising in organised crime, Colombia recorded the highest seizure figures in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2023, confiscating a total of 739.5 tons of cocaine hydrochloride.

Ecuador ranked second, with more than 195 tons seized in 2023, followed by Panama and Brazil, which seized 95.7 tons and 72.3 tons, respectively. Brazil remains the most important transit point on the Atlantic coast of Latin America, seizing more cocaine than Argentina, Guyana, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela combined. These countries lie on the borders of producer nations and serve as key transit points for drug trafficking routes toward Europe and the United States.

Drug trafficking is violence

Drug trafficking groups compete for strategic trafficking routes: Ecuador surpassed all violence indicators in 2023, and Costa Rica’s homicide rate increased by 41% amid an ongoing struggle to control cocaine trafficking through its ports.

Meanwhile, in countries such as Bolivia and Peru — where much of the world’s coca leaf is cultivated — authorities seized more cocaine in 2023 than in 2022, yet homicide rates remained low.

New maritime drug trafficking routes

During 2024, a drug trafficking route (particularly cocaine hydrochloride) has become the main expansion corridor for transnational criminal organisations seeking a path from producer countries (mainly Colombia and Peru) to Europe. The route crosses Southern Cone countries by air, land (Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil and Venezuela), or via waterways (through the Paraná waterway involving Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina), and crosses the South Atlantic from ports in Brazil and Argentina toward African countries in the Gulf of Guinea and North Africa (including Morocco, Nigeria, Liberia and Senegal, among others).

Within this context, European, Latin American and African criminal organisations operate in a coordinated manner at low operational and logistical cost. The presence of European groups in Latin America is steadily increasing, while Latin American criminal networks expand into Africa to facilitate logistical, storage and transport needs for the transit of illicit goods to Europe. All of this occurs with low visibility and limited territorial rivalry, strengthening transnational cooperation between criminal networks and ensuring that drug shipments reach their final destination in Europe.

In this reality of continuous innovation in territorial movements — with routes designed to evade land, sea and air controls, alliances between countries from different continents, and complex networks in Atlantic and Pacific departure ports — the European SEACOP project develops its strategies to identify the movements of international maritime smuggling networks, disrupt the consolidation of criminal structures, and prevent drug shipments from reaching their final destination.

Maritime intelligence, seizures and cooperation: keys to success

One of the project’s most successful and sustainable strategies is to build lasting capacity in partner countries around three key areas that must be developed jointly to achieve results: maritime and river intelligence, seizure techniques, and the creation of international cooperation networks.

During the first half of the year, we carried out intelligence training in several countries where the project is active. In the second half, we are delivering training on seizure techniques and have defined two transnational intelligence strategies involving both Latin American countries and African nations such as Senegal.

As a result of this simultaneous training and networking effort, two strategies have been established that combine training and coordination of transnational operations with the support of specialists from the Spanish National Police. These strategies are known as Special Response Groups (GRES): GRES South Atlantic and GRES Ports, which involve SEACOP partner countries along the southern and northern maritime and river drug trafficking routes.

Special Response Groups

The GRES SUR operation was launched last May in Paraguay with the participation of the other member countries (Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay). Meanwhile, GRES Ports will be launched in mid-October in Colombia with the participation of Peru, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic, also inviting key countries in the region such as Panama and Costa Rica.

In its first months of operation, GRES SUR has carried out operations in strategic maritime and recreational ports such as Santos, Montevideo, Río de la Plata, Dakar and Asunción, leading to seizures of both drugs and drug-related assets.

Maritime containers, cargo vessels and recreational boats have been inspected, resulting in cocaine seizures in Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil. Drugs were also seized from a vessel that departed from Senegal bound for Argentina, and ten people allegedly involved in this trafficking were arrested.

These results have been possible thanks to coordinated efforts in maritime–river information sharing and joint operations. The Operational Coordination Centres in Argentina and Senegal have been key to preventing information leaks and ensuring effective international coordination.

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