A GI-TOC report reveals how Balkan criminal groups have turned West Africa into a strategic hub for cocaine trafficking to Europe, partnering with South American cartels and local middlemen.

Cocaine trafficking off the West African coast is intensifying. On Wednesday, September 3, the Atlantic Maritime Prefecture announced that a French Navy frigate had intercepted nearly six tons of cocaine aboard a fishing boat in international waters, not far from the African coast.

Behind these spectacular seizures lies a deeper dynamic: West Africa has become a new hub for traffickers from the Balkans and Albania, according to a report published by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC).

Since 2019, everything has been done discreetly. Little by little, criminal groups from Montenegro, Serbia, and Albania have established themselves in Senegal, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, and Cape Verde. The goal is to take advantage of expanding seaports and weak controls to transport ever more cocaine to Europe, where demand continues to grow.

“The operations of criminal networks in the Western Balkans have contributed to making West Africa a central hub for cocaine transhipment to the EU, and the region continues to grow in importance in the global cocaine trade,” said Lucia Bird, Director of the GI-TOC’s Observatory of Illicit Economies in West Africa.

Strategic alliance and local brokers

At the heart of this system lies a strategic alliance: that between certain Montenegrin and Albanian clans and the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), the most powerful Brazilian cartel. An agreement that has allowed them to strengthen their grip on the entire trafficking supply chain, from South America to European markets.

"These groups have turned to West Africa due to the increased demand for cocaine in Europe, the tightening of controls along direct trafficking routes to Europe, and their closer partnerships with Latin American cartels, particularly the CCP in Brazil," said Fatjona Mejdini, director of the GI-TOC's Observatory of Illicit Economies in Southeast Europe.

Another distinctive feature is the key role played by local brokers, who are genuine intermediaries who ensure logistics, relationships with local stakeholders, and transaction discretion. "The use of intermediaries is a defining characteristic of these networks. They offer flexibility, local access, and increasingly serve as points of convergence between different groups," analyzes Sasa Djordevic, co-author of the report.

Faced with this growing power, GI-TOC experts are calling for increased transcontinental cooperation between law enforcement, port authorities, and private actors, as well as better data collection and more precise targeting of brokers to curb this new cocaine route.