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WORLD NEWS Saturday 7 May 2022
Experts worried by rise of cocaine processing in Europe

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN ganizations to make sure
Associated Press that they are the strongest
BRUSSELS (AP) — Records in their business area,” De
amounts of cocaine are Bolle said. “The violence
being seized in Europe while has also a direct impact
manufacturing of the drug on citizens on the streets
is now taking place inside because we see people
the the European Union, of- dying on the streets in the
ficials in charge of fighting European Union.”
and monitoring drugs use in EU experts also looked at
the bloc warned on Friday. the growing methamphet-
More than 214 tons of co- amine market, which has
caine were seized in Eu- been spreading in recent
rope in 2020, a 6% increase years after being initially
from the previous year, concentrated in the Czech
and experts from the Euro- Republic and Slovakia. In
pean Monitoring Center for 2020, a total of 215 meth-
Drugs and Drug Addiction amphetamine laboratories
(EMCDDA) believe that were dismantled in the re-
amount could reach 300 gion, according to reports
tons in 2022. from nine EU countries.
With a market retail value According to Europol, the
estimated at 10.5 billion eu- EU agency for law enforce-
ros in 2020 and about 3.5 ment, European manufac-
million European citizens Bales of cocaine weighting some 5,2 tons and a seized yacht are displayed for the media at a turers of synthetic drugs are
reporting having used it in Portuguese Navy base in Almada, south of Lisbon, on Oct. 18, 2021. working in cahoots with
the past year, cocaine is Associated Press Mexican cartels to increase
the second most used drug production.
in the EU after cannabis. illicit production laborato- DA director, said the avail- nizations,” he said. “This has “We see a clear link, Eu-
Its availability in Europe has ries were discovered in the ability on the continent of resulted in record levels of rope-Mexico,” said Eu-
never been higher, with ex- EU. large amounts of cocaine drug availability, rising vio- ropol’s executive director,
tremely high purity and low Speaking at a news con- base and paste increases lence and corruption, and Catherine De Bolle. “Mexi-
prices. ference in Brussels, Laurent the risk of seeing new forms greater health problems.” can people, drugs criminals
While most cocaine manu- Laniel, a scientific analyst of highly addictive crack The expansion of the co- from the cartels are active
facturing still occurs in Co- at the EMCDDA, said that emerging on European caine market also saw a on the European soil.
lombia, Peru and Bolivia, cocaine powder is of- markets. rise in violence and corrup- Chemists from Mexico
EU experts are worried by ten smuggled from South “We are now facing a tion in the EU, with fierce come to the European
the processing now taking America to Europe in car- growing threat from a competition between traf- Union because they are
place inside the 27-nation rier materials such as char- more diverse and dynamic fickers leading to a rise in specialized in the produc-
bloc, particularly in Bel- coal and plastics, then ex- drug market that is driven homicides and intimida- tion and in the use of meth-
gium, Spain and the Neth- tracted in local laborato- by closer collaboration tion. amphetamine. So we see
erlands. ries. between European and “Violence nowadays is a that they are active in the
Between 2018 and 2020, 45 Alexis Goosdeel, the EMCD- international criminal orga- key feature for criminal or- labs.”q

With Ukraine’s ports blocked, trains in Europe haul grain

By PHILIPP-MORITZ JENNE via the sea route. That’s prices already soaring, the
VIENNA (AP) — A train car- why we are creating green high cost of fertilizers and
rying 2,000 metric tons of corridors,” Koestinger said. cooking oils are further
Ukrainian corn arrived in The shipment comes amid squeezing the global food
Austria on Friday, part of a wider struggle to cope chain.
European efforts to elude with disruptions to global To help ease the crunch in
a Russian blockade of food supplies triggered by a small way, trains will carry
Ukraine’s ports that has Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, up to 60,000 metric tons of
prevented critical sup- with both countries two of grain from Ukraine to Aus-
plies of wheat, corn and the world’s biggest suppli- tria every month, adding
other grains from getting to ers of wheat, barley and to similar shipments to Ger-
countries in Africa, Middle sunflower oil. Russia is also a many. Those exports cir-
East and parts of Asia. major exporter of fertilizers cumvent Russia’s blockade
Standing in front of a rail that farmers need to grow of Odesa, Ukraine’s largest
car adorned with the Aus- crops. port, on the Black Sea.
trian and Ukrainian flags, The potential loss of afford- The Ukrainian ambassador
Austria’s farming minister, able grain supplies that to Austria, Vasyl Khymynets, A freight train with fodder maize, arriving from the Ukraine arrives
Elisabeth Koestinger, said millions around the world called the new land route in Vienna, Austria, Friday, May 6, 2022.
the shipment marked the rely on for cheap bread an important symbol of Associated Press
establishment of a “green and noodles has raised the Ukraine’s cooperation with
corridor” for important car- risk of food shortages and its partners. metric tons of Ukrainian capacity of 25 million tons.
go shipments between the political instability in coun- “We are looking for routes grain could potentially be The initial Austrian shipment
two countries. tries where many people to supply the world with exported every month via was purchased by ani-
“Grain and animal feed ex- already were not getting food,” he said. various land routes just a mal feed producer in that
ports can’t leave Ukraine enough to eat. With food Khymynets said 600,000 fraction of Ukraine’s export country. q