A recent investigation has highlighted the expanding footprint of Latin American organized crime groups across Europe, revealing their growing involvement in cocaine trafficking and collaboration with local mafia networks. The findings indicate that criminal organizations from several Latin American countries are active in multiple European states, significantly contributing to a surge in cocaine shipments to the continent.
The probe, which spanned four months and drew on police and intelligence databases, court documents, and expert interviews from eight countries, identified the presence of criminal networks from Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela, Mexico, and the United States in at least 12 European nations. Between 2014 and 2024, cocaine seizures in Europe rose by 471 percent, accompanied by an increase in the dismantling of laboratories producing cocaine derivatives. Authorities noted that actual activity could be more extensive, as the assessment excludes groups operating remotely in partnerships with European mafias rather than maintaining a physical presence.
Among the Latin American organizations identified are Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel and Jalisco New Generation cartel (CJNG); Colombia’s Clan del Golfo, ELN guerrillas, and dissident factions of Farc; Brazil’s Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and Comando Vermelho (CV); Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua; and US-origin gangs Barrio 18 and MS-13, which have a strong presence in Central America. These groups have established stronger operations in Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France, with activity also reported in Germany, Romania, Croatia, Slovakia, and Bulgaria.
Daniel Brombacher, director of the Europe Observatory at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (Gi-TOC), emphasized a notable shift in the geographical scope of these groups. “There is something new happening with a presence of Latin American groups in geographies where there’s no pre-existing infrastructure,” he said, noting discoveries of Mexican-operated methamphetamine labs in regions such as southern France, northeastern Poland, and near Berlin, as well as expanding operations along the Balkan route.
An unpublished report from the São Paulo public prosecutor’s office, referencing data from Brazil’s intelligence agency (Abin), suggests the PCC operates in up to 16 European countries, including the UK, Ireland, Iceland, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland, and Turkey, a presence potentially broader than officially documented.
While the infiltration of Latin American cartels into Europe is not a recent development—Colombian groups maintained footholds in Spain as far back as the 1980s—law enforcement officials consider the current level and scale far more significant. A Europol report released this year confirmed these groups have established bases within the EU, from which they coordinate activities including organized property crime.
Global cocaine production, concentrated predominantly in South America, has risen sharply over the past decade, reaching an estimated 4,100 tonnes in 2024—more than four times the volume in 2014. Colombia remains the largest source, producing cocaine at volumes exceeding those during the era of Pablo Escobar.
Experts such as Víctor Manuel Sánchez Valdés of the Autonomous University of Coahuila in Mexico assert that Mexican and Brazilian cartels, alongside Colombian and Venezuelan factions, maintain a notable but complex presence across Europe. “Sinaloa cartel and the CJNG have a presence in more than 20 European countries," he said. “They operate more as business emissaries than dominant cell leaders.”
According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime’s 2026 World Drug Report, coca cultivation has expanded to an unprecedented 385,000 hectares, triple the 2014 area, underpinning the surge in global cocaine supply. Europe has emerged as a lucrative market for traffickers due to higher profit margins compared to the United States, a trend reflected in recent years by European police confiscating more cocaine than their American counterparts.