Veracruz, Mazatlán, Altamira, Guaymas, Manzanillo and Ensenada are seen as the points of origin of large quantities of cocaine seized and confiscated in ports in the European Union.
“In the European Union, the ports of Veracruz, Mazatlán, Altamira, Guaymas, Manzanillo and Ensenada have been identified as ports of origin for shipments of illicit merchandise in which large quantities of cocaine have been seized,” revealed Julio César Sánchez Amaya, holder of Permits for the Export Control System of the Ministry of Economy (SE).
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Surely more Mexican ports will have complications with cocaine trafficking, said the person also responsible for the Economic Development, Security and Transportation Sector of the Ministry of Economy.
2021 was a year that marked a record in the seizure of 70 tons of cocaine for an estimated value of 5 billion euros, said the official within the framework of the XXIX Annual Congress of Shipping Agents, organized by Amanac.
In that same year, he commented, the authorities at the port of Rotterdam caught drug extractors on 400 occasions, a group of young people hired to remove cocaine that is moved in hotel containers.
He added that hotel containers are declared empty on shipping manifests, but in reality they contain basic amenities.
“In 2021, more than 280 drug extractors were seized; it is even known that in Holland there are many cooks who are working in drug production operations; and the high presence of Mexican cooks, who are not in restaurants and do work in the service of trafficking, is due to security and the high salaries charged in the Netherlands,” he explained.
To begin with, the “cooks” earn more than 20 thousand dollars and not the 20 thousand pesos that they get for helping some drug cartel in Mexico, just as they do not walk around the bush and can travel throughout the European Union, he pointed out.
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The European Union Agency has established direct contact with the governments of Mexico and Latin America to share information to combat drug trafficking, he said.
This allows the 27 countries of the European Union to have a single database to exploit and have the facility to share information and request information on crimes, concluded the official from the Ministry of Economy.
