A four-month investigation by the Guardian has found that the surge in cocaine trafficking into Europe is directly connected to the growing presence of Latin American criminal networks on the continent, which have built close ties with local mafia organisations.
The investigation drew on databases, police and intelligence agencies, and interviews with judges, prosecutors and experts from eight countries. It found that cartels and factions from Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela, Mexico and the United States are active in at least 12 European countries.
Between 2014 and 2024, the quantity of cocaine seized rose by 471%, and more local laboratories processing cocaine derivatives were dismantled.
The true figure may be higher. The tally covers only groups officially identified in Europe through police operations, transnational investigations and ongoing court cases involving brokers, active members, cells or operational networks. Gangs with no physical presence in Europe that work in “joint ventures” with European mafias are not counted.
Among the identified groups are Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel and the Jalisco New Generation cartel (CJNG); Colombia’s Clan del Golfo mafia alongside the guerrilla organisation ELN and dissident factions of Farc; Brazil’s Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC, or First Capital Command) and Comando Vermelho (CV, or Red Command); Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua; and the US-originated Barrio 18 and MS-13 gangs, which are also prevalent in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and, to a lesser degree, Mexico.
These organisations have established a more prominent presence in Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium and France, while their activities have also been recorded in Germany, Romania, Croatia and Slovakia. The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (Gi-Toc) also includes Bulgaria.
Daniel Brombacher, a political scientist and director of the Europe Observatory at Gi-Toc, said there is “something new happening with a presence of Latin American groups in geographies where there’s no pre-existing infrastructure”.
He added that the phenomenon is no longer confined to the traditional gateway countries. Recent police operations have uncovered Mexican-run methamphetamine labs in southern France, north-eastern Poland and Brandenburg, south of Berlin, he said, and Latin American groups are also appearing in Romania and Bulgaria along the Balkan route.
Latin American national authorities and experts suggest the list may be longer still. An unpublished report by the São Paulo public prosecutor’s office, partly based on data from the Brazilian intelligence agency (Abin), which the Guardian reviewed, shows that the PCC — now Brazil’s biggest criminal group — operates in 16 European countries, including the UK, Ireland, Iceland, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey.
The suspicion that Latin American cartels and factions are seeking to establish themselves in Europe is not new. Since at least the 1980s, Colombian criminal organisations such as the Cali and Medellín cartels had footholds in Spanish regions such as Galicia, and a 2013 Europol report warned of their rise. What authorities are witnessing now is on another level, the Guardian reported.
A Europol report this year states that “Latin American MTCNs [most threatening criminal networks] have also settled in the EU, from where they direct operations that affect the EU. This is particularly the case for mobile criminal networks involved in organised property crime.”
Interpol, led by the Brazilian federal police officer Valdecy Urquiza, has been approached but has not commented.
The problem has become more visible over the past decade. Drug production in Latin America has increased roughly fourfold in that time, reaching a record of about 4,100 tonnes in 2024, following growth of up to 35% at the beginning of the decade. More cocaine is now produced in Colombia than during the era of the drug lord Pablo Escobar. Nearly all the world’s cocaine and many related substances originate in Latin America, particularly Colombia.
Víctor Manuel Sánchez Valdés, an academic at the Autonomous University of Coahuila in Mexico who specialises in organised crime, said: “The main ones are the Sinaloa cartel and the Jalisco cartel [CJNG] in Mexico; the Comando Vermelho and the PCC of Brazil; the Gulf Clan and different factions of the Colombian Farc; the Lobos and the Choneros of Ecuador; and Tren de Aragua of Venezuela.”
He believes the Latin American presence in Europe is more widespread than is generally recognised. “Sinaloa cartel and the CJNG have a presence in more than 20 European countries. Obviously, that does not mean they dominate or have large cells,” he said. “Rather, they are business emissaries.”
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime’s 2026 World Drug Report on illicit crimes states that global cocaine production in 2024 was between 3,800 and 4,700 tonnes — more than four times higher than in 2014. South America remains the main production hub, with coca cultivation covering a record 385,000 hectares over the past decade, three times the 2014 figure.
Europe has emerged as a key market because it offers organisations higher profit margins than the United States. Since the beginning of the decade, European police have confiscated more drugs than American forces, and data indicates Europe now represents about a quarter of global consumption.
Europol recently reported that of 731 MTCNs operating across Europe, 149 are connected to Latin American organisations. Of those, 67 have Latin American members and 22 consist mainly of Latin Americans.
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