A nerve center for sales. “The Calabrian port today it is one of the strategic ports for the importation of cocaine into Europe” we read in a report by Libera. “The numbers of seizures are huge and give an idea of the enormous profits made by the ndrangheta which, thanks to these businesses, is buying up half of Europe: in April 2023 the Financial Police and the Customs and in the previous two years, 38 tons of cocaine had been seized in Gioia Tauro alone, approximately 93.7% of that seized throughout Italy. It was announced that the percentage of seizures had been raised from an average of 8 – 10% to 20-22%. This means that if they have been seized 38 tons in two years have passed over 150 tons, destined throughout Europe and not just in our country. Just stop for a moment to calculate the value on the drug dealing squares over 150 tons of coca which once cut are worth 600 tons to imagine the huge profits that underlie the business.Billions and billions of euros, many more than a state finance company, which drug the legal market with illegal economic flows, conditioning the systems of economic and social relations in our country and beyond. These data – says Giuseppe Borrello, regional representative of Libera Calabria
they also confirm an ever-increasing incisiveness of the action of the judiciary and the police;”in the fight against and prevention of malfeasance in the port of Gioia Tauro. A continuous and constant activity which must aim to make even safer, from any type of mafia infiltration, a port which, due to its characteristics and position, continues to be strategic for the development of Calabria and the entire Mediterranean area”.
Not just Italy. In the 2023 report, the DCSA dedicated an in-depth analysis of international cocaine trafficking by sea. According to what has been reconstructed, “in 2020, in particular, 520 cocaine seizures were made, reported by 12 EU Member States (Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal , Spain) e from 3 countries outside the EU (Russia, Ukraine, United Kingdom)”. The report goes on to claim that: “The amount of cocaine seized amounts to 282 tons, found in 75 different ports, distributed as follows: 301 seizures (171 tonnes) in 35 EU ports; 11 seizures (2 tonnes) in 6 ports in non-EU countries; 206 seizures (108 tons) in 32 ports in Latin America; 1 seizure (0.5 tons) in a port in Africa; 1 seizure (0.5 tons) in a port in North America. In essence, in 2020, 108 tons of cocaine, bound for Europe, were seized in departure ports located in Latin America and approximately 171 tons (approximately 80% of the cocaine intercepted in Europe, equal to 213 tons) were seized in the main container ports of the European Union”.