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Drug traffickers are adapting to travel restrictions and the closure of Covid-19 borders from using human messengers to shipping containers and commercial supply chains, European officials have warned.
Law enforcement experts say the illicit drug market has proven “very resilient” to the disruption caused by the pandemic, as traffickers alter the routes and methods used in wholesale smuggling. and increase the production of illegal drugs in Europe.
Cannabis resin produced in Morocco and normally taken to Spain to be trafficked by land to the rest of the EU had increasingly moved to maritime routes by shipping containers, the European Monitoring Center on Shipping said. drugs and drug addictions 2021 Report Wednesday.
There has also been reports of an increase in maritime seizures of heroin, which are typically smuggled by land from the Middle East to Europe. During the second half of 2020, large confiscations of cannabis and heroin were reported in several European seaports.
Highlighting the use of business supply chains, the report states that it appears that new forms of tranquilizers are being sent from Chinese companies as bulk powder to Europe, where they are processed into finished products, including tablets. , capsules and e-liquids for vaporization.
Organized crime groups also intensified illegal drug production in Europe, according to the report. Despite the disruptions caused by Covid-19, cannabis cultivation and synthetic drug production in the EU appeared stable at pre-pandemic levels. Signs of a possible increase in the availability and use of crack cocaine related to the pandemic were also a concern.
“We are witnessing a dynamic and adaptive drug market that is resistant to the restrictions of Covid-19,” said Alexis Goosdeel, director of the Lisbon-based agency. “We are also seeing increasingly complex drug use patterns, as consumers are exposed to a wider range of very potent natural and synthetic substances.”
Officials are concerned that an increase in insomnia and anxiety during the Covid-19 pandemic could lead more people to self-medicate with new forms of tranquilizers sold by criminal gangs and often marketed as “Design benzodiazepines”.
These drugs are not controlled by international drug laws and are often sold as “legal” prescriptions for prescription drugs, such as Valium and Xanax, according to the report.
Users may be unaware of the substances or doses they are taking, increasing the risk of serious poisoning, especially if consumed with alcohol or other sedatives, according to the EMCDDA.
“New benzodiazepines have become firmly entrenched in the new drug market in Europe,” Goosdeel said. “More substances in this group are likely to continue to appear as users look for new drug experiences or alternatives to over-the-counter medications.”
Although street drug retail markets were disrupted during the first closures in 2020, drug sellers and buyers also adapted by increasing the use of encrypted messaging services, social networking applications, online sources and services. mail and home delivery, according to the report.
This raised the question of “whether a long-term impact of the pandemic could be the additional digitization of drug markets.”
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