“We can’t deny it, or bury our heads in the sand, we have to be ready for anything” , Artur Vaz had said earlier this year, in statements to DN, about the alarming increase in cocaine production and its reflection in trafficking to Europe. “We have to be ready for anything,” he said.
Right now guarantee they are”committed” to “exerting strong pressure on criminal organizations to reverse” this upward trend.
“There must be a very strong cooperation and articulation internally. It is not only the work of the judicial police, it is a networking , work of the various criminal police bodies, customs authorities, security services, as well as with other entities of civil society and with the private sector. This is work that must be done very closely. Then there is also the aspect of international cooperation . Increasingly, cooperation with the authorities of other countries and with international organizations is absolutely crucial. In this regard, in recent years, a lot has been done, a lot has evolved in terms of cooperation,” he underlines.
recognizes that your unit has not yet had the reinforcement of means at the level of the National Anti-Corruption Unit, which, according to what director Pedro Fonseca confirmed in episode 11 of the Soberania podcast, has increased the number of inspectors by 40%, but attributes this to the fact that there were other “priorities in recent years”, such as cybercrime, corruption and terrorism.
“Other areas have been left (behind), namely the fight against drug trafficking . Fortunately, at European Union level, over the past two, three or four years, there has indeed been a new commitment to the fight against drug trafficking. Europe has very serious traffic problems,” he said.
“Narco-States” in Europe?
In fact, the records of cocaine seizures – which have occurred, mainly in countries with large ports, such as Belgium and the Netherlands – accompany the increase in production and sales in Europe, with Portugal on the route of drug traffickers.
More traffic brings more money and more money brings more violence . In the heart of Europe, the level of violence associated with the organized crime of cocaine trafficking has increased so much that a high command of the Belgian police fears that their country is turning into a “narco-state”.
“If there are no more means for the security forces, within 10 years Belgium will be a narco-state. The scenario that we are used to seeing in Latin America is also possible in Europe” said Kristian van der Waeven, director general of the customs police.
Artur Vaz follows this resurgence with concern, but believes that in Portugal this will not be the case. “In fact, we have seen and recorded an increase in violent acts linked to drug trafficking, which, it must be said, have traditionally always existed, namely when there are badly settled cases between traffickers. But what we recorded in Portugal has nothing to do with what is happening in other countries and we do not clearly foresee this happening in Portugal. What we do know is that what drives these organizations is profits and they try to do this activity as discreetly as possible. When acts of violence are resorted to, the bells ring and what these organizations want is to be out of the reach of the authorities. But, I repeat and emphasize, we do not expect the situation to evolve to these levels “, assures.
Specialist in organized crime and drug trafficking, Sylvie Figueiredo , is not so optimistic and paints a worrying picture, including of the impact on society in general. “In France, in Marseille alone in 2023, 21 people were murdered in connection with drug trafficking cases . In other words, the leaders of these groups are outside France, they are in the United Arab Emirates, they recruit on the internet and there are people who do not belong to the groups and whose only function is precisely to find the target and assassinate the targets. And we are talking about extremely young people, the majority, 60%, are under 30,” he said.
corruption and violence
For this reason, he adds, “by talking about the consequences for society, in addition to corruption, and this corruption has economic consequences – because we already had in Rotterdam until companies having difficulty retaining their workers because they are threatened by organized criminal groups to give them cards or to facilitate the entry or exit of a product – we also have this problem of violence, in particular in certain regions and, therefore, I am not convinced that this cannot occur at the Portugal. For a reason: because I think it will concern the groups that are active in Portugal and the role that Portugal can have in trafficking. Because we also cannot forget that we have recently detected a cocaine production laboratory in Spain, that is, to finalize the cocaine process. (…) What we see is that the traffickers have other goals for Europe and this is linked to these other groups, which are no longer the classic cartels in which there was a kind of specific geographies in which each operated. QThe more groups we have, the more violence I think there can be. Especially because what we see, especially in the younger elements of organized crime, is precisely this great disrespect for human life, this devaluing of human life.”
This expert gives as an example the Brazilian organized criminal group PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital) . “The CCP is one of the largest or largest criminal organizations in Latin America and apparently PCC individuals have already been identified in Portugal, as well as in other European countries. It is a group that has grown in power, in fact, like the Sinaloa Cartel itself, their great power comes from the wealth they obtain and come from transporting cocaine. In other words, as Sinaloa had done when transporting cocaine to the United States of America, the CCP ends up becoming this giant of organized crime by transporting the cocaine from the countries of origin of the cocaine to the ports, namely the port of São Paulo and from there its export to Europe . And it is in this way that he begins to gain power, “he asserts.
Priority investigation
The director of the UNCTE points out that, in recent years, “damage has been inflicted on criminal organisations”, in particular because “a group of European countries, of which Portugal is a part, we have been able to carry out numerous interventions at sea, in the Atlantic”.
Sylvie Figueiredo’s prognosis is that “as long as we have these high production levels and there are no markets capable of acquiring this high production, the Europe will always remain a preferential market “because “profitability is higher in Europe, even with higher transcontinental transport costs, it is more profitable for dealers to sell cocaine in Europe than in the United States “. Second, “the United States has a saturated market and Europe still has room for growth”.
Finally, “we have these ngroups of eggs that also enter this market like the Albanian groups, which were traditionally more associated with cannabis and are now very strong in the cocaine market.”
Therefore, he concludes, “as long as these two factors are maintained, I think that we will have these high volumes for Europe in the years to come “.
The recent ranking of drug trafficking as a “priority investigation” crime Artur Vaz sees the government’s proposal for the new criminal policy law as a sign that the full impact of an escalation in drug trafficking in Portugal is being taken into account.
“It is very important in terms of strengthening the capacity to fight against trafficking, because all the investigations become priority investigations. (…) What I feel and what are the indications coming from the European Union , is that, fact that, the fight against trafficking must clearly be one of the priorities of the action of the national authorities the Member States and the European Union itself, for its impact and the threat it poses to the whole of the European Union “.
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