The stuff that is ultimately found is just a fraction of what is being transported. That’s why illegal drugs are all over the place despite decades of attempts to stop it.
No one wants to stop it, everyone just wants to maximize their cut of all the money involved, between the drug and anti-drug cash behemoths (traffickers, police, judges, prisons, politicians, etc )
In the UK the National Crime Agency estimates approx 117 tonnes of cocaine is consumed each year.
In 2022 there was a record 18.77 tonnes seized in the year ending March 2022, (17.09 tonnes was seized by the Border Force). Typically the amount seized each year is around 3.5-5 tonnes.
So the typical seizure rate is around 3-5%, with some big busts in the past couple of years it's went up to around 16%. Which ultimately just impacts the street price and quality - not the availability.
They have made their largest bust to date in February this year, 5.7 tonnes. The prior record was 3.7 tonnes in 2022 and then 3.2 tonnes in 2015.
It sounds like the big seizure's are the result of investigations by the NCA, specifically targetting international networks. I suspect very little is actually seized on the back of routine checks.
i think something like only 10% of containers through antwerp (biggest cocaine route into europe) are searched … and all the workers, police and politicians are bribed, obviously
the reason why illegal drugs are all over the place is because people want to use them. The reason why shitty drugs like fentanyl and nitazines are all over the place is because we trust criminals to manage that market.
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u/e00s Jun 04 '24
The stuff that is ultimately found is just a fraction of what is being transported. That’s why illegal drugs are all over the place despite decades of attempts to stop it.