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TEHRAN, Jun 6 - European authorities are seizing record quantities of increasingly pure cocaine, the EU drugs agency said in a report published Thursday, also warning of a growing use of synthetic drugs and dealing via smartphones.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - The rise in trafficking on social media, darknet markets and cocaine "call centres", where dealers deliver quickly to users who order online, are creating a "potential 'Uberisation'" of the drugs trade, it said.
There is a "more systematic and organised use of different social networks, messaging apps and communication methods that also use encryption" than in the past, Alexis Goosdeel, head of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), told reporters in Brusssels.
"There is a steady increase in the size of the market and sale over the internet and darknet," he said.
Not only are there signs that established plant-based drugs like cocaine are increasingly available, but, he said, "synthetic drugs and drug production within Europe are growing in importance".
Dimitris Avramopoulos, EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, told the same press conference the "report presents a worrying picture" with the record seizures of illicit drugs like cocaine and heroin.
He also said the EU and its partners had "no time to spare" in tackling "the role of digitalisation in the drug market".
Source: AFP
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