Colombia’s cocaine production went up 19%, from 772 metric tons to 921 metric tons in 2017, though other estimates put the potential production much higher.

Add Peru's and Bolivia's production and it will be indeed close to 2000 tonnes.

The Mexicans have now also begun to produce it themselves and they have moved into Brazil's Amazon and are producing cocaine deep in the rainforest.

The Dutch coast guard has discovered 3000 kilos of cocaine off the coast of Aruba in a cargo ship sailing under the Panamanian flag. The coast guard had come into action after a tip from the American DEA, Central American media report .

The ship Trader Express had already left the port of Roatan, Honduras on October 16. The 10-person crew of the boat consisted of Hondurans.

This article is from 2014 but they have discovered cocaine plantations in Mexico.

https://www.vice.com/amp/en_us/arti...ntation-could-upend-the-cocaine-business

Record 730 Kilos of Heroin Seized in Hungary-Slovenia Operation

https://hungarytoday.hu/record-heroin-hungary-slovenia/

$140m shipment of MDMA intercepted before hitting Brisbane
9News Staff 2 hrs ago

An international shipment of MDMA, large enough to make seven million ecstasy tablets, has been intercepted before hitting the streets of Brisbane.

A 10-month investigation between Australian and Dutch authorities saw the drugs, which have an estimated street value of $140 million, intercepted near Rotterdam, Amsterdam.

Authorities found the drugs hidden in a shipping container of tinned pulped tomatoes.

Australian Federal Police, the Queensland Joint Organised Crime Taskforce, Queensland Police, Border Force and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission all worked with Dutch police in the investigation, which has been described as one of the biggest MDMA seizures in Australian history.

AFP officers embedded overseas are believed to have played a vital role in the undercover operation, which saw the drugs intercepted before they were shipped to Australia.

Father and son Paulus Johannes Berkhof, 58, and Petronella Adrianna Waltherus Adriaan Berkhof, 37, are alleged to be key members of the syndicate and have been charged in the Netherlands.

They will not be extradited to Australia.

AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw said all those involved would face prosecution.

"The AFP is committed to working closely with its law enforcement partners here in Australia, through partnerships such as the Queensland Joint Organised Crime Taskforce, and overseas to ensure offenders face considerable consequences for their actions," Mr Kershaw told News Corp.

"I wish to thank our Dutch counterparts for their expert involvement in this investigation and strong support of our efforts to keep these drugs off Australian shores."

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/aust...epted-before-hitting-brisbane/ar-BBX8TOd

Yes and it's now common that coca base is shipped to Mexico and Europe, the cocaine is produced later in labs overseas. Probably because it's easier to get ether here.

The Spanish police have intercepted a submarine with approximately 3000 kilos of cocaine off the coast of Galicia. According to Spanish media, this is the first time that drugs have been smuggled to Europe with a submarine. Two crew members from Ecuador were arrested. A third crew member is still being sought along the coast at Playa de Foxos, 55 kilometers southwest of the regional capital Santiago de Compostela.

The 20-meter-long submarine from Colombia has been followed by the police for three days. The smugglers wanted to go ashore at Punta Couso, near the Portuguese border. When they discovered that the police and customs were following them, they quickly disappeared under water again. Moments later they could still be caught up. It is unknown whether cocaine batches have been dumped in the sea.

The Spanish police estimate that there are at least 3000 kilos of cocaine in the submarine. The investigation suspects that there are large professional gangs behind the drugs because the submarine costs at least 2.5 million euros.

Spain arrested sellers of Dutch heroin
November 29, 2019

The Spanish National Police says they have arrested one of the largest distributors of heroin in Spain in Madrid. A total of 13 people were arrested. The group would resell large quantities of heroin from the Netherlands to Spain.

Police see a Turkish man who was nicknamed "El Capitán" in Spain as the leader of the group. His right hand was responsible for transporting the drugs.

There have been searches at various locations in the Madrid region, including Alcalá de Henares and Torrejón de Ardoz. An explosive was found, and 26,000 euros in cash, six expensive cars, many telephones, a hydraulic press, cutting equipment and documentation were seized.

25 kilos of heroin were intercepted this week. The group distributed heroin in cardboard (milk) packages ("tetrabricks").

The investigation began a year ago with the information that a group of large quantities of heroin would be imported from the Netherlands into Spain. After a few months, two suspects were arrested with five kilos of heroin. Further investigation then led to "El Capitan".

According to the Spanish police, a laboratory in Spain for the production of cocaine from the semi-finished cocaine paste could produce two tons of cocaine per month. The Spaniards recently dismantled that lab together with a lab in the jungle in Colombia where the cocaine paste was made.
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Nine people were arrested in the lab in Casasbuenas (in the province of Toledo), among them four people who were working in the lab. According to the police, 150 kilos of pasta, 7 kilos of cocaine, and seven tons of chemicals were seized there together with a firearm and more than 100,000 euros in cash.

The lab in Colombia was in a remote area under the control of Front 21, which is dissidents from the former FARC guerrilla movement that did not join the peace agreement that the FARC agreed with the Colombian government.

More than 2000 kilos of cocaine intercepted on the way to the shed in Alphen
ALPHEN - A 25-year-old man from Rotterdam was arrested on 27 November after an interception of a cocaine shipment to Alphen of over 2,000 kilos. The police report this on Monday afternoon. The batch of drugs had a street value of around 100 million euros.

The container, originating from Colombia, was checked by the Belgian customs. They found the blocks of cocaine, good for 2019 kilos in total, between a deck load of fertilizer bags. Because the container was intended for a company in the Netherlands, the Federal Police contacted the Dutch unit.

Giant cocaine capture Alphen is not unique: thousands of kilos of 'white gold' on the drug route to Brabant

The National Criminal Investigation Office subsequently took over the case. After the container was delivered to a company in Alphen, an arrest team went into the warehouse and a suspect was arrested. The man is in pre-trial detention. The police could not tell on Monday whether the man is also the tenant of the shed. Multiple arrests are excluded, the police said.

Over a period of three days during customs controls at the port of Rotterdam, Customs intercepted a total of 1,457 kilos of cocaine.

On December 12, Customs found in a container loaded with a powder for the concrete industry 450 kilos of cocaine. Then Customs found on the same day in a container with barrels of fruit pulp 500 kilos of cocaine. These cocaine blocks were frozen in the fruit concentrate.

Last Friday, customs officials found 17 large sports bags with 496 kilos of cocaine in a magnesium container. And finally, on Monday, in the engine compartment of a cooling container, loaded with watermelons, 11 kilos of cocaine were found.

All containers were from Brazil. All batches of drugs have since been destroyed.

'Ndrangheta? Morabito is still on the run over there.

Cocaine record catch in Uruguay
The Uruguayan police and navy have intercepted 4,418 kilos of cocaine , including in the port of the capital Montevideo.

The coke was hidden in four containers of soybean meal destined for Lomé in Togo, a country in West Africa. The authorities speak of the largest amount ever seized in the South American country. According to local media, four suspects have been arrested.

The soybean meal and a quantity of drugs were loaded on a farm in southwestern Uruguay. After a raid, the police also found cocaine on the farm.

Transit point
Countries in West Africa have been a widely used cocaine transit point for years that comes to Europe from South America. A part of the drugs goes on by ship, another part goes via routes in the Sahara to North African countries such as Morocco.

In recent years, the number of seizures of (mainly) Peruvian and Bolivian cocaine in southern South American countries has increased, in particular in Brazil and on ships originating from Brazil. In August 4.5 tonnes were packed in Hamburg from Uruguay. This fall, 3,000 kilos were intercepted in Paraguay.

Record capture of cocaine in ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp
In the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp, cocaine has never been intercepted as much as in 2019. In total, it involves more than 100,000 kilograms, with a street value that can go up to 5 billion dollars.

A little more than 38 tons of cocaine surfaced in Rotterdam, in Antwerp it was more than 61 tons. That was announced on Wednesday during a press conference in Antwerp. The number of cocaine seizures increased by 50 percent in Rotterdam, and by a quarter in Antwerp. This is a record for both ports. The figures from Rotterdam are an estimate, the final figures will follow at the end of January.

According to the Financieele Dagblad , an estimated one quarter of the cocaine that enters the port of Rotterdam is intercepted. The drug is often hidden in fruit containers and is usually from Suriname, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil and the Dominican Republic. This flow of goods is so great that it is difficult to control by customs.

Costa Rica police intercepts 5000 kilos of cocaine with destination Rotterdam
In Costa Rica, the police claim to have done the biggest drug catch ever. More than 5000 kilos of cocaine were intercepted in the port of Limón, intended for the Netherlands.

The drugs were packed in 202 bags in a container in which official ornamental flowers were shipped. The cargo would today depart by ship to the port of Rotterdam.

The police have arrested a suspect. He is a Costa Rican man of 46 without a criminal record.

The port of Limón is mainly used for the export of pineapples, bananas, sugar and coffee. In recent years, the remote port area has become popular among drug smugglers.

https://nos.nl/artikel/2323278-poli...lo-cocaine-met-bestemming-rotterdam.html

The Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard of Aruba intercepted a ship on its way to Greece with 5000 kilos cocaine 11 people were arrested all from Montenegro.


According to the Spanish authorities, a large Colombian network has been dismantled, which traded extensively in Western Europe - particularly in the Netherlands - in drugs. There was not only large imports of cocaine but also trade in synthetic drugs, like MDMA. Colombian groups have been more independently active in drug trafficking in Europe in recent years.

The Dutch police have repeatedly established cooperation between Dutchmen and the so-called Clan del Golfo. That is the same group that was mentioned in Colombia as contact of Saïd Razzouki, the fugitive Dutch murder suspect who was recently arrested at Medellín.

Experts think that Colombian criminal organizations have recently focused more on the cocaine trade to Europe, leaving the routes to the United States to the Mexican groups, who have often been bringing their own cocaine from South America to North America. The Colombians would also like to take control of entire routes to Europe and also have more solid ground under their feet within Europe without having to enter into joint ventures with European traders. Important business factors are the competition that Colombians have on the route to North America from the Mexicans and the substantially higher price of cocaine in Europe.

Sorry for the question

But do you have a list of 5 families drug busts since 2000?

The Spanish customs, police and Guardia Civil have seized 752 kilograms of methamphetamine. The drugs were ingeniously packaged in marble blocks and shipped from Mexico. Five people were arrested, their nationality was not disclosed.
It is the largest catch of crystal meth ever in Spain. According to the Spanish authorities, the system used to package drugs in blocks of marble has not been shown before. In the marble, cylindrical spaces were cut into which packages of meth in PVC had been inserted. The contents of those spaces could not be made visible with measuring equipment.

An international crime ring that imported thousands of kilograms of heroin to the Netherlands was broken up this week with the arrests of three people in Amsterdam and Dordrecht. Authorities said the drugs were brought to the capital to then be distributed back out to Germany, the Scandinavian countries, and the United Kingdom.

Seven others were arrested in Turkey as part of the plot, along with another in Poland and a 32-year-old woman in Belgium, Dutch police said. The three taken into custody in the Netherlands are between the ages of 44 and 50, the latest arrests in an operation spanning over 14 months.

The international police operation included the cooperation of authorities in those countries, as well as Belarus, Germany, Kazakhstan, Italy, Lithuania and Spain. Europol also took part in the investigations.

The Netherlands has been in the spotlight for its work to dismantle large heroin smuggling operations over the past year. A joint investigation between British, Belgian, and Dutch authorities led to the discovery of over 1,300 kilograms of heroin, worth over 130 million euros, a record for Europe. Months earlier, Spanish police arrested 17 people including Dutch-Turkish man Sadullah U., believed to be one of the largest heroin traffickers in Europe.

The biggest player in the heroin trade at the moment is the Iranian Urfi Cetinkaya, the man in the wheelchair. Google him.

Almost $30 million in drugs seized in nearly half-mile-long tunnel linking US and Mexico

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/01/us/san-diego-drug-tunnel-trnd/index.html

Last week they found by chance in the port of Vlissingen (Zeeland) 4500 kilos. It is the largest coke find ever in Zeeland.

Ontario drug investigation leads to 3 arrests, seizure of almost 2K kilograms of opium

https://globalnews.ca/news/6904451/ontario-drug-investigation-arrests-opium-seizure/


Une énorme cache d’opium découverte dans les Laurentides

https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/...pium-decouverte-dans-les-laurentides.php

2000 kg opium bust inland canada.
https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/...pium-decouverte-dans-les-laurentides.php

Toronto police announce cocaine-trafficking group with ties to a Mexican cartel busted

https://globalnews.ca/news/6928454/toronto-police-cocaine-trafficking-investigation/

The police in Costa Rica intercepted a large amount of cocaine intended for the Netherlands. Over 1,250 kilograms of cocaine were found in the port of Limon, hidden in a shipment of pineapple juice destined for the port of Rotterdam.

The drugs were packaged in 1,250 parcels of 1 kilo each, the local authorities said on Twitter.

This is the second time in a matter of months that the Costa Rican authorities seized a major shipment of drugs destined for the Netherlands. In February, over 5 thousand kilograms of cocaine were seized - Costa Rica's biggest drug bust in history.

Drugs from the country also make it into the Netherlands. This year alone, three such shipments of cocaine were intercepted at the port of Rotterdam - 1,000 kilos hidden in a banana shipment in January, 865 kilos hidden in a container with pineapples in March, and over 4,500 kilos hidden in a banana shipment in April.

Ex-Real Madrid player Edwin Congo arrested as cops smash gang smuggling cocaine soaked in cardboard fruit boxes

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11615846/edwin-congo-real-madrid-arrested-cocaine-smuggling/

Several Dutch have been arrested, Diego Maradona's former personal physician, Mauricio V., is "The Surgeon".

The York Regional Police (YRP) partnered with the Toronto Police Service (TPS), Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), and Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS).

DRUG TRAFFICKING NETWORK DISMANTLED, CHARGES LAID, APPROXIMATELY $3.4 MILLION DOLLARS IN DRUGS SEIZED IN PROJECT CACHE

https://www.yrp.ca/en/Modules/News/index.aspx?newsId=14334b1c-f4d6-4f44-8133-3d662723938f
___________

From the list of those charged:

1 | P a g e
PROJECT CACHE – CHARGE LIST
Van Cuong VU, 44
Trafficking Methamphetamine x 5
Trafficking Cocaine x 3
Possession for the Purpose of Trafficking (Meth) x 5
Possession for the Purpose of Trafficking (Cocaine) x3
Possession of Property Obtained by Crime x9
Conspiracy to Commit and Indictable Offence
Possession for the Purpose of Distribution - Cannabis Act x3
Sell Cannabis - Cannabis Act x2

Shahrouz JAHANGARD, 39
Trafficking Methamphetamine
Possession for the Purpose of Trafficking (Meth)
Possession of Property Obtained by Crime
Conspiracy to Commit and Indictable Offence
Possession for the Purpose of Distribution - Cannabis Act

Duc Duy (Tony) HOANG, 42
Trafficking Methamphetamine
Possession for the Purpose of Trafficking (Meth)
Possession of Property Obtained by Crime
Conspiracy to Commit and Indictable Offence
Possession for the Purpose of Distribution - Cannabis Act

Bich Thi NGUYEN, 51
Possession for the Purpose of Distribution - Cannabis Act

Thi Bich LE, 32
Possession of Property Obtained by Crime x2
Fail to Comply with Recognizance

Van DO, 35
Possession of Property Obtained by Crime x2
Fail to Comply with Recognizance x4

Kim Lien NGUYEN, 38
Possession for the Purpose of Distribution - Cannabis Act

Johnny NGUYEN, 25
Possession for the Purpose of Distribution - Cannabis Act

Tuan NGUYEN, 30
Possession for the Purpose of Distribution - Cannabis Act

2 | P a g e
Jason NGUYEN, 19
Possession for the Purpose of Distribution - Cannabis Act

Jimmy NGUYEN, 21
Possession for the Purpose of Distribution - Cannabis Act

Van DOAN, 52
Possession for the Purpose of Distribution - Cannabis Act

Loan NGUYEN, 51
Possession for the Purpose of Distribution - Cannabis Act

Ngoc TRAN, 27
Possession for the Purpose of Distribution - Cannabis Act

Lisa NGUYEN, 25
Possession for the Purpose of Distribution - Cannabis Act

Hung NGUYEN, 49
Possession of Property Obtained by Crime
Possession for the Purpose of Distribution - Cannabis Act

Giang PHAM, 40
Possession of Property Obtained by Crime
Possession for the Purpose of Distribution - Cannabis Act

Nam NGUYEN, 18
Possession of Property Obtained by Crime
Possession for the Purpose of Distribution - Cannabis Act

Binh TRAN, 44
Possession of Property Obtained by Crime
Possession for the Purpose of Distribution - Cannabis Act

James MAC GILLIVRAY, 29
Trafficking Methamphetamine
Possession for the Purpose of Trafficking (Meth)
Possession for the Purpose of Distribution - Cannabis Act

Sell Cannabis - Cannabis Act

Thien Bat TROUNG, 32
Trafficking Methamphetamine x2
Trafficking Cocaine
Possession for the Purpose of Trafficking (Cocaine)
Possession for the Purpose of Distribution - Cannabis Act

3 | P a g e
Sell Cannabis - Cannabis Act
Tuan Anh TRAN, 40
Possession of Cocaine
Possession for the Purpose of Distribution - Cannabis Act

Special forces of the Spanish police have dismantled a drug gang that is suspected of smuggling huge amounts of marijuana to the Netherlands. It is said to be 'one of the biggest catches ever'. Two Dutch drivers have been arrested.

Spanish media report this on Thursday. In the southern Spanish provinces of Malaga, Almeria and Murcia nearly a ton (1000 kilos) of vacuum-packed marijuana was seized during raids. Forty people were arrested in total, fourteen of whom were from one family.

In Malaga, 24 people were said to have been arrested belonging to a criminal organization involved in international drug trafficking, destined mainly for the Netherlands, reports the Guardia Civil, the Spanish police.

Hawala banking
According to the police, the gang used the so-called 'hawala banking', a system of illegal underground banking. It would certainly have been 1.6 million euros.

The operation started at the end of 2018, and showed that the criminal group delivered on order to Dutch 'customers'. Because of the huge quantities involved, the gang was forced to use different marijuana suppliers because it was impossible to get so many drugs from one supplier.

What Lockdown? World’s Cocaine Traffickers Sniff at Movement Restrictions

https://www.occrp.org/en/coronaviru...affickers-sniff-at-movement-restrictions