BERLIN: According to the latest data of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), almost seven tons of cocaine have been confiscated at German borders in 2017, primarily in major port cities like Hamburg and Bremerhaven. By contrast, overall cocaine seizures amounted to about one ton in 2016. The BKA argued that such a trend is common not only for Germany. According to its recent study, the amount of cocaine confiscated in various regions worldwide has doubled over the past five years. The BKA associates the rise in illegal drug trafficking with a significant expansion of the area of land that is used to grow the coca plant in Colombia. According to reports, illegal cocaine trade in Germany is organized by criminal gangs from Balkan countries and the Italian mafia. The news about the extraordinary cocaine seizures came one week after Munich customs destroyed around 550 kilograms of marijuana, an amount that corresponds to around 3.8 million joints.
