International Journal on Criminology
the number of consumers , the second largest market behind the cannabis market and , above all , the one with the most dynamic growth . In twenty-five years , use during the year has increased more than fivefold . 17 Over time , it has come to represent for French traffickers a market as strategic as that of cannabis resin : a trend that has gone hand-in-hand with a stranglehold of “ North African ” organized crime to the detriment of the former milieu .
Cocaine imported into France is produced in Colombia , which accounted for 70 percent of global production in 2017 , where production literally exploded between 2013 and 2017 — production has increased fivefold to reach an absolute record of 1,379 tons 18 — and transits mainly through Brazil and the West Indies . Most of it arrives by sea via container traffic . Thus the port of Le Havre , France ’ s leading commercial port , and more recently Marseille , where , at the beginning of the year , the largest seizure ever made in France — over 3 tons — was made , have become strategic targets for traffickers , who are trying to develop a hold on the docks , as regularly illustrated by the dismantling of networks involving port industry employees .
In addition to the seaway , air routes play an increasingly important role in supplying the French market . This has been the case , in particular , since 2011 , with the very sharp increase in mule traffic from Cayenne ’ s Guyane airport . In 2018 , more than 2 tons of cocaine was seized from smugglers , either in luggage or in bodies , representing nearly 13 percent of all cocaine seizures made in France 19 . Some unpublished studies suggest that the Surinamese and Guyanese industries contribute 15 to 20 percent of the French market . Other significant sources of supply for small teams of retailers and user-dealers are the Netherlands and , increasingly , Belgium .
Belgium has become a major transit point for Latin American cocaine via the port of Antwerp in a few years , where absolutely unprecedented seizures , nearly 62tons in 2019 , have taken place in recent years . This is also the case , but to a lesser extent , for the ports of Rotterdam and Hamburg . The Netherlands and Belgium are therefore unavoidable for some European traffickers because they are the largest cocaine redistribution hubs in Western Europe .
Against this backdrop of state action , the cocaine market is bound to experience enormous tensions in the coming weeks and months . On the demand side , first of all , the festive and recreational dimension of cocaine consumption means that the demand for synthetic drugs such as ecstasy is literally collapsing due to the confinement of homo festivus and the lack of festive events at discos and free
19 OCRTIS / OFAST , 2019 .
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