Over the past several years, I’ve seen so many headlines about “record cocaine seizures” in countries around the world that they barely register anymore.
But this week, two record cocaine seizures in Europe caught my eye: a 3-ton bust in Sweden and 10 tons headed to Spain. These huge interdictions showed that after more than three months of lethal US attacks on alleged drug boats, global drug flows have not halted — at most, they’re simply shifting routes.
The substantial human and financial cost of the US strikes, which now number 35 and have killed at least 123 people, raises the question of how effective they have been in debilitating international drug trafficking networks.
US President Donald Trump has claimed that the military campaign in the Caribbean and Atlantic has almost completely eliminated drug trafficking in those areas. But the European seizures show there’s no shortage of alternative corridors to get the product to consumers.
Pushing the trade around isn’t the same thing as tackling it at its roots. The 10-ton seizure was an example of how traditional law enforcement cooperation can deal big blows to trafficking networks, without bloodshed and allegations of war crimes.
The US worked with the UK, France, Portugal, Brazil, and Spain on the seizure, which was worth tens of millions of dollars. With cocaine production remaining at record levels and demand continuing to climb in Europe and Asia, that kind of international cooperation will be crucial for combating the powerful networks moving large-scale drug shipments around the world.
The question now is whether that kind of cooperation will continue, or whether the United States will keep doubling down on its longstanding militarized approach, which has grown increasingly more aggressive under President Donald Trump.
Whatever comes next, we’ll be tracking it.
