The illegal drug trade is booming in Europe due to a growing and profitable demand for cocaine. It can be sold for almost double the price you can get for it in the US. Belgium and the Netherlands have been named as the new cocaine capitals, as the major container ports there have been infiltrated by drug smuggling gangs, and the US market becomes saturated and turns to opiates instead.

But how does cocaine get to Europe? And who’s operating these gangs? We speak to two journalists who’ve been looking at the illegal drug trade in Europe; Anna Holligan, BBC correspondent in the Netherlands, and Gabriel Stargardter, a Reuters journalist in Paris.

As more drugs are routed to Europe, countries in West and Central Africa are increasingly being used as key transit zones. Lucia Bird from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime tells us what impact it’s having on those countries.

Plus David Hillier, a freelance British journalist, explains what kinds of illegal drugs Europeans are currently taking.

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This podcast was edited on 28 February 2025.