Drug Trafficking

Increasingly, drug trafficking investigations and prosecutions in the European Union have links to non-EU countries and practitioners see the need and opportunity to collaborate with these countries at the judicial level.

 EU Drugs Strategy and Action Plan 2021-2025. The Commission considers drug trafficking operated by organised crime to be one of the most serious security threats in Europe.

Strengthen preventive efforts: While some Member States have robust frameworks empowering local authorities to use administrative tools against criminal infiltration, others are lagging behind in developing such approaches. It is essential to enhance the exchange of best practices and guidance among all Member States to support the establishment of national frameworks for the implementation of the administrative approach. The Commission intends to provide practical guidance in 2024, focusing in particular on the use of administrative tools and information exchange to effectively combat criminal infiltration.

Dismantle high-risk criminal networks: In order to better dismantle high-risk criminal networks, the Roadmap proposes mapping the criminal networks that pose the greatest threat to society, strengthening the exchange of information and cooperation between judicial authorities in complex cross-border organised crime investigations, and using the features of the Schengen Information System (SIS). The latter has been strengthened – by means of a new legal framework that became operational in March 2023 to help prevent criminals and terrorists from moving within or entering the EU undetected.

Strengthen cooperation with international partners: priority will be given to those countries and regions whose national legal frameworks are abused by criminals to hide themselves or their assets.

Strengthen the resilience of logistics hubs through a European Ports Alliance: The strategic role of logistics hubs – as key gateways for the EU’s economic prosperity and the transport of goods across the EU – makes them vulnerable to drug smuggling and exploitation by high-risk criminal networks and their enablers. To counter this, the Commission proposes enhancing the resilience of ports by establishing a European Ports Alliance, by activating the customs community as the first line of defence against illicit trafficking, by promoting improved law enforcement cooperation to dismantle criminal networks involved in drug trafficking, and by establishing a public-private partnership.