“Super Cartel” Responsible For A Third Of Europe’s Cocaine Dismantled

A “super cartel” which was believed to supply one third of Europe’s cocaine trade has been dismantled across six European countries.

Europe’s police agency Europol announced 49 arrests were made across the investigation, with the latest raids carried out between November 8 and November 19.

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Thirty tonnes of drugs were seized, while arrests were made in Belgium (10 arrests), France (six arrests), the Netherlands (14 arrests in 2021) and Spain (13 arrests).

"The drug pins considered as high-value targets by Europol had come together to form what was known as a 'super cartel' which controlled around one third of the cocaine trade in Europe," Europol said.

"The scale of cocaine importation into Europe under the suspects' control and command was massive and over 30 tonnes of drugs were seized by law enforcement over the course of the investigations."

Additionally, Europol said officials in Dubai had arrested two “high-value” suspects linked to the Netherlands, two to Spain and another two connected to France.

Operation Desert Light involved multiple meetings hosted and coordinated by Europol over the last two years in order to bring together the different countries working on the same targets to establish a joint strategy to bring down the whole network.

More than 10 operational meetings took place at Europol in this period. 

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