We are a seaport which means that if you sail out you pass the border and that brings several smuggling types.

They handle such high volumes. As I said, of the 100 million containers passing through,

only approximately between 2 to 10% of all the containers that enter

these specific airports can be checked. So they are very adaptive, very resilient and they could easily

adapt their modus operandi. They also have a lot of financial means and they do not have to follow

rules or laws, etc.

Welcome to the Europol podcast, the official podcast of the EU Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation.

In this series, we shine a light on some of the biggest cases Europol has supported and how we continue to fight crime. Today's episode, Sinking Drug

Shipments.

When it comes to organized crime groups, trafficking drugs into Europe, Europol's work focuses

on cross-border cooperation that will shut down

their operations. Working with police, academics, private companies and other partners, we can

actually identify how drugs come into Europe and devise ways to take down trafficking networks.

In today's episode, we will look at one of the main ways drugs come

into the European Union via our maritime ports.

So firstly, how big is the problem of drugs in EU ports?

We do write extensive reports that try to answer this question.

And last year, for example, we published a joint report on the European drug market of cocaine

and one on methamphetamine.

What we can already say is that it is very clear that the trade in illegal drugs continues

to dominate the landscape of serious and

organized crime in the EU. That's Barbara, who works here at Europol. My name is Barbara Salis.

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