Western Balkans Criminal Networks Expanding Cocaine Trade in West Africa

Impact of Western Balkans on Cocaine Trafficking

By Portia Crowe and Jessica Donati

Rising Demand and Enforcement Challenges

DAKAR (Reuters) -Western Balkans criminal groups, who are among Europe's top cocaine traffickers, are entrenching themselves in West Africa in a sign of the region's growing significance on the smuggling route from Latin America to the EU, a report has found.

Key Alliances in the Cocaine Supply Chain

Rising demand for cocaine in Europe, combined with increased enforcement along direct routes from Latin America and the significant expansion of maritime ports in West Africa, has for several years pushed smugglers to increase trade through Senegal, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde.

Call for Enhanced Law Enforcement Cooperation

But the influence in the region of Albanian- and Slavic-speaking networks has so far been poorly understood.

The Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) researchers said in the report released on Tuesday that the groups had significantly grown in global importance and were among the top criminal networks in Europe's cocaine trade.

These groups have leveraged alliances in the region with Dutch criminal groups and, notably, Brazil's Primeiro Comando da Capital, or PCC, to deepen their footprint across the supply chain.

"That alliance, between Western Balkan groups and the PCC, is probably the most important alliance for moving cocaine into Europe right now," said Sasa Djordevic, one of the co-authors and senior analyst at the GI-TOC.

The report, partly sponsored by the UK government, said more cross-continental cooperation was needed between law enforcement, port authorities and other players to tackle the growing drug routes.

It also called for increased data collection and smarter targeting that focused on brokers in the trade.

"These groups are amongst the most sophisticated organised crime groups in the world - they're not minor players," said Lucia Bird Ruiz-Benitez de Lugo, director of GI-TOC's Observatory of Illicit Economies in West Africa.

"These major global players have been linked to violence in Europe, and as we see more and more of these very sophisticated, very violent organised crime networks pile into West Africa, that is a threat from the perspective of stability and violence."

(Reporting by Jessica Donati and Portia Crowe; Editing by Alison Williams)