Ocean carriers saw a series of seizures of large shipments of drugs in the U.S. and Europe in 2019, and officials say they are a sign of the growing use of commercial shipping operations for increasingly large loads of cocaine, heroin and other drugs. Officials say the growing scale of shipping operations, with the biggest container ships doubling in size over the past decade, has made it an attractive target for drug traffickers.
Seizures of cocaine aboard commercial ships and private vessels world-wide more than tripled over the past three years, to 73.2 metric tons in 2019 from 22.4 metric tons in 2017, according to Resilience360, which monitors risk and disruptions across supply chains and is owned by German logistics company Deutsche Post DHL.
Antwerp is one of Europe’s biggest ports, handling more than 11 million containers a year. Customs agents there seized around 50 tons of cocaine in 2018, 22% more than in 2017 and six times more than in 2013. Cocaine increasingly also is being moved by ships doing regional South America sailings. Brazil’s Department of Federal Revenue said in November that cocaine hauls at the country’s ports jumped 50% on year in the first 10 months of 2019 compared with the same period the year before.
Lol “hitching”
Legalize drugs
LEGALIZE EVERYTHING