Spain Warns of Surge in Cocaine Trafficking from Morocco to Europe

The Spanish intelligence services submitted their annual report on security risks related to drug trafficking from Morocco to the government of Pedro Sanchez in May. The document reports a "remarkable increase in cocaine from Morocco, or intercepted on the high seas, conveyed to Spain with semi-rigid boats via the traditional hashish trafficking routes".

Faced with this finding, the Department of Homeland Security (DSN) recommends that the government strengthen surveillance in the strait to reduce trafficking on this maritime route. "It is urgent to strengthen the preventive mechanisms of the coasts and borders in order to detect new phenomena and typologies and to strengthen the surveillance and sealing mechanisms of the drug entry routes," the 390-page report states.

The situation revealed by the Spanish intelligence services is well known to the Regional Center for Analysis and Intelligence against Drug Trafficking (CRAIN), a Guardia Civil police unit based in Seville. In 2020, the Center dismantled a cocaine trafficking network in Spain. In total, nearly 50 people were arrested and more than a ton of cocaine was seized.

The cocaine generally arrives in Spain through one of the large Moroccan ports such as Casablanca or Tangier. Once recovered, it is stored in warehouses, waiting for the right time for its transit carried out by truck to the north coast, where it is unloaded onto semi-rigid boats equipped with powerful engines for their transport to the coasts of Cadiz.

This new maritime route is very popular with South American drug traffickers. Trafficking has increased in recent years on this route where the Spanish police have dismantled drug trafficking networks to the Dutch ports.