Cocaine produced in Venezuela is being shipped to West Africa, which is then trafficking the drug into Europe, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The drugs are flown out of Venezuela by corrupt military officials and drug gangs to West Africa, where jihadist-linked smugglers move the drug to Europe, according to the Journal.
Law enforcement officials told the Journal that Venezuela has become a strategic location, with its ineffectual security and long coastline.
While the Trump administration has tried to prevent boats carrying drugs from Venezuela from entering the U.S., most of its cocaine is being sent through Europe via West Africa.
Once the drugs arrive in Africa, smugglers collaborate with al-Qaida-affiliated groups that escort the cargoes north and extort payments from the overland convoys, rebel leaders in Mali told the Journal.
From Mali, the drugs cross the Sahara Desert into Algeria, Morocco, and Libya, officials told the Journal.
The drugs are then shipped across the Mediterranean Sea to Southern Europe.
Corruption at ports along Venezuela's coastline allows vessels to be sent to Portugal and Spain, InSight Crime told the Journal.
There is now more cocaine seized in Europe than in North America, according to statistics from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Spanish police recently detained 13 members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, while 2.6 tons of cocaine were seized in Guinea-Bissau after it was flown into the country.
Cargo flights from Venezuela to West Africa take off once a week, with smugglers turning off their planes' transponders to hide their movements and bribe air-traffic controllers to switch off their tracking systems when drug planes pass overhead, InSight Crime told the Journal.
Last year, 3.3 tons of cocaine were seized by Spanish authorities aboard a Spain-bound Venezuelan fishing vessel near the Canary Islands, the Journal reported.
Last month, Portuguese police detained a vessel with 1.7 tons of cocaine, manned by a Venezuelan crew that had sailed across the mid-Atlantic.
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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