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Western Balkan criminal groups are important players in the Netherlands.

From stashes in apartments, to garages, concrete panels and false compartments in cars, recent seizures of cocaine from Western Balkan gangs that exploit busy ports in the Netherlands and distribute across Europe are emblematic of the country’s unwanted status as an epicentre for drug trafficking.1

The flourishing trade and violent competition surrounding cocaine, in particular, has even prompted the chairperson of the Dutch Police Union to describe the country as an emerging narco-state.2

Daniel Boffey, Netherlands becoming a narco-state, warn Dutch police, The Guardian, 20 February 2018. Close footnote

Criminal organizations based in the Netherlands with transnational connections have become central, especially in managing the import of cocaine from South America into Europe.3

As an individual familiar with Albanian organized crime explained, ‘Albanians have a strong presence in drug trafficking in the Netherlands. They have established efficient networks, including specialized groups that pick cocaine from ports, a service highly valued in the criminality environment. Cocaine is their primary focus and, to a lesser extent, they are also involved in synthetic drugs and cannabis production.’4

Interview with a person familiar with how organized Albanian criminals operate in the Netherlands, Tirana, April 2024. Close footnote

 Criminals ship the bulk of their cocaine from Ecuador and Colombia through the ports of Rotterdam and Vlissingen in the Netherlands, and Antwerp in Belgium (see Figure 1).5

The majority reaching Antwerp, Belgium, is probably intended for organizations operating out of the Netherlands, from where the cocaine is distributed to other European destinations. However, these criminal groups maintain close ties with those in the Netherlands, sometimes based on family ties. See UNODC and Europol, Cocaine insights 1, December 2021. Close footnote

 ‘Everything goes through Rotterdam. It has an excellent network for activities and great transportation connectivity,’ said a person knowledgeable about Serbian organized crime.6

Interview with a person familiar with how Serbian organized crime operates in the Netherlands, April 2024, by phone. Close footnote

 Criminal groups from the Western Balkans, with direct links to South American cartels, manage an estimated one-third of all cocaine imported to Europe, relying on these kinds of networks.7

Simon Piel and Thomas Saintourens, The Serbian mafia’s ‘house of horror’, Le Monde, 20 May 2022. Close footnote

Key routes connecting criminal groups from the Netherlands and the Western Balkans.

Figure 1 Key routes connecting criminal groups from the Netherlands and the Western Balkans.

Source: See footnote8

Phillip Pergens, Grootste drugskartel van de Balkan, gelinkt aan vondst van 1,2 ton cocaïne in Hasselt, opgerold, Het Belang Van Limburg, 12 May 2023; Europol, 37 arrested as violent Balkan criminal cell is taken down, 25 May 2023; UNODC, Global report on cocaine 2023; 37 arrestaties bij internationale actie tegen drugs- en wapenbende, NOS, 26 May 2023, Interview with a senior representative of the Dutch police, February 2024, by phone; European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), Cannabis cultivation and trafficking in the Western Balkans, December 2022; Kars de Bruijne, De Nederlandse sleutelrol in de geglobaliseerde drugshandel en productie, Clingendael, January 2021; EMCDDA and Europol, EU Drug Markets Report 2019, p 129; H Ferwerda, J Wolsink and I van Leiden, De lading van vuurwapens: Een onderzoek naar de impact van illegale vuurwapens in Nederland, Politiekunde, 2020. Close footnote

In addition to the cocaine trade, Western Balkan criminal groups are also involved in importing heroin and weapons, human trafficking, indoor cannabis cultivation and exporting synthetic drugs.

The Dutch origins of synthetic drugs in the Western Balkans

Illicit substances such as MDMA (ecstasy), amphetamine and methamphetamine are produced in the Netherlands (particularly in North Brabant and Limburg provinces9

) and exported all over Europe, including to the Western Balkans.10

Pieter Tops et al, The Netherlands and Synthetic Drugs: An Inconvenient Truth, Eleven International Publishing, 2018. Close footnote

 In Serbia, for example, most of the amphetamine on the market comes from the Netherlands.11 Precursors are imported from China and Mexican ‘cooks’ are involved in the trade.12

Valentina Pop, Mexican cartels are now cooking Chinese chemicals in Dutch meth labs, The Wall Street Journal, 8 December 2020. Close footnote

 Production is reported to have increased in 2023, becoming what a senior Dutch police officer referred to as ‘factory production of narcotics’.13

37 arrestaties bij internationale actie tegen drugs- en wapenbende, NOS, 26 May 2023; Interview with a senior representative of the Dutch police, January 2024, by phone. Close footnote

 Ecstasy is also increasingly exchanged for cocaine in South America, where consumer demand for synthetics is rising.14

Attraction of the Netherlands to criminal groups

The Netherlands offers several advantages for Western Balkan criminals, including its geographic location, infrastructure and trading position.15

It also has a ‘great judicial system, especially regarding human rights and the right to defence, and a liberal approach to drugs and punishments for these crimes. Just look at the Gačanin agreement,’ said a person well-versed in Serbian organized crime, referring to the lenient sentencing of major drug dealer Edin Gačanin.16

Interview with a person familiar with how Serbian organized crime operates in the Netherlands, April 2024, by phone. Edin Gačanin, known as a major drug dealer, reached a plea deal with the prosecutor’s office in the Netherlands in 2023 and was sentenced to seven years in prison for smuggling 2.4 tonnes of cocaine. Close footnote

 Despite being relatively small, the Netherlands is Europe’s largest maritime freight transport country and a global trading hub.17 Its largest port, Rotterdam, is the 10th biggest container port in the world: yearly, approximately 467 million tonnes of freight are brought into Rotterdam port alone.18

World Shipping Council, The top 50 container ports. Note: ranking is based on 2019 statistics; Port of Rotterdam, Throughput at the Port of Rotterdam, 2023; and Facts and figures. Close footnote

The same efficiencies that make Dutch infrastructure attractive to licit companies are also attractive to criminal actors. Additionally, the high volume of trade makes it difficult to detect contraband among tens of thousands of containers. According to the last available data, the Netherlands had a turnover in 2022 of more than 14.7 million containers (see Figure 2), of which only tens of thousands were scanned.19

Interview with a Netherlands customs administration official, February 2024, by phone. According to 2017 data, only 0.5% of all containers are inspected in the Port of Rotterdam. See Kars de Bruijne, De Nederlandse sleutelrol in de geglobaliseerde drugshandel en productie, Clingendael, January 2021. Close footnote

Volume of containers handled in the Netherlands and the European Union, in TEU (x 1 000).

Figure 2 Volume of containers handled in the Netherlands and the European Union, in TEU (x 1 000).

Source: Eurostat

Dutch customs authorities did not want to disclose the number of scanned containers due to an ongoing investigation. However, in 2022, the newspaper De Volkskrant reported that 55 000 were scanned.20

Only 467 containers were physically inspected by the Hit and Run Cargo Team, a collaboration between customs, the tax authorities, seaport police and the prosecution.21 Corruption among port and scanner workers is also a problem, creating an ideal setup for smuggling drugs.22

Isabel Baneke, Hardnekkig probleem in de Rotterdamse haven: de smokkelaars die drugs uit containers veiligstellen, Trouw, 1 February 2021; Jeremy McDermott et al, The cocaine pipeline to Europe, GI‑TOC and InSight Crime, February 2021. Close footnote

Drugs are often hidden in fruit shipments: in 2023, for example, Dutch customs intercepted a €90 million cocaine shipment hidden in a container of bananas from Ecuador.23

And the trade is increasing, according to the police: in total 176 000 kilograms of cocaine were intercepted in 2023.24

Criminals use various methods to circumvent control by Dutch authorities. ‘One is the so-called switch method, in which criminals move the drugs from one container to another to circumvent control,’ said a senior Hit and Run Cargo Team official at Rotterdam’s port. ‘This usually concerns containers of fruits or other fresh products from Central America, where bags of drugs were placed at the port of origin. Due to the often-limited shelf life of the contents, these types of containers must quickly pass through customs, which means that criminals also have limited time to move the drugs to another container; preferably one with origin and destination within Europe because, in principle, these are not checked.’

Criminal syndicates often use minors – referred to as ninjas or runners – to extricate cocaine from containers in ports, not least since prison sentences for minors are relatively low. ‘I recently had a case where four young guys were found in a container stocking 800 kilos of cocaine. They each received only two years unconditionally. For 800 kilos!’ a senior Dutch police officer told the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI‑TOC).25

Interview with a senior representative of the Hit and Run Cargo Team from the Dutch Police, February 2024, by phone. Close footnote

The Netherlands’ financial system is crucial in the illicit economy, enabling criminals to facilitate trade and money movement.26

With a large financial sector and various informal options for concealing and transferring funds, criminals can easily launder their profits.27 Amsterdam, for example, is the centre of the European hawala system, an informal money transfer system that does not require record keeping and therefore leaves no trail.28

Inte Gloerich et al, Flying money 2018: Investigating illicit financial flows in the city, Institute of Network Cultures, 2018; Victor D van Santvoord and Teun van Ruitenburg, Financial crime scripting: Introducing a financial perspective to the Dutch cocaine trade, The Police Journal, 96, 3 (2023), pp 374–389. Close footnote

 Hawala transfers are estimated to be worth more than €10 billion per year in Amsterdam and are used extensively by criminals and terrorist movements, according to the Dutch police.29 The Amsterdam housing market also provides an opportunity to launder investments.30

Nederland tegen georganiseerde misdaad, Gemeente en vastgoedbelegger bestrijden samen crimineel woningmisbruik, 28 September 2022. Close footnote

Because of all these factors, Dutch cities such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam and – to a lesser extent – Utrecht are serving as the physical meeting place for the international drug world. Amsterdam now has what researchers call ‘a similar marketplace function’ to cities like Dubai, Medellín, New York and Miami, where demand is determined, negotiations take place, and payment is made for drug transports.31

Western Balkans groups operating in the Netherlands

The cocaine trade between the Netherlands and the Western Balkans is dominated by Albanian and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian speaking criminal groups, who control dealing, mid-level distribution and, together with Dutch criminals, large-scale trafficking, often in collaboration with one another.32

Criminals from Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina operate in partnership with Dutch criminals and obtain drugs through Dutch seaports and airports.33

Interview with a senior representative of the Dutch police, February 2024, by phone; Interview with a crime reporter from the Netherlands, February 2024, by phone. Close footnote

Besides the cocaine trade, they also smuggle synthetic drugs and traffic women whom they force to work in legalized red-light districts, including Amsterdam’s popular De Wallen district.34

According to a senior police operative, Balkan-based groups also deal in weapons. ‘Small buses full of firearms’ are frequently found by the Dutch police, most originating from Albania, Serbia and Montenegro.35

Interview with a senior representative of the Dutch police, February 2024, by phone. Close footnote

The ex-Yugoslav diaspora coordinates the trade in Antwerp, Rotterdam and Luxembourg.36 Additionally, in the last six years, the Western Balkan criminal networks have adopted a business model that focuses on indoor cannabis cultivation in the EU.37

EMCDDA and Europol, EU drug market: cannabis — criminal networks, November 2023. Close footnote

 Criminal groups grow cannabis illegally in the Netherlands or buy Dutch expertise for cultivating it.38

David Weinberger et al, Illegal cannabis cultivation in Europe: new developments, EchoGéo, 48, 2019. Close footnote

‘They have a large presence across the Netherlands’, says a senior Dutch police spokesperson about criminal groups from the Western Balkans. ‘They are very active and aggressive. Not only are they involved in retrieving the cocaine from ports like Rotterdam and transporting it across Europe, but they also run boiler-and-storage houses. Balkan criminals are known to rent so-called ghost houses in holiday parks in the south of the Netherlands from criminal real-estate agencies.’ Other Balkan-based criminals come only ‘to get the cocaine from the port or to liquidate someone, and then go straight back home’.39

Interview with Dutch police spokesperson, January 2024, by phone. Close footnote

Limited knowledge of Western Balkan criminal groups among Dutch law enforcement

Dutch law enforcement officers reportedly often incorrectly identify the nationalities of criminals from the Western Balkans. Bosnians, Montenegrins and Serbs are frequently wrongly identified or grouped together, or even confused with Albanians. According to a senior police spokesperson, ‘knowledge levels about the Balkans are too low’,40

Interview with a senior representative of the Dutch police, February 2024, by phone. Close footnote

which is why most police sources speak of ‘Balkan-based groups’ or even use the derogative term ‘Yugo’ to describe Balkan criminals. This knowledge deficit affects the ability of law enforcement capacity to respond to the problem, and is compounded by a major staff shortage within the Dutch police. There are only two liaison officers in the Dutch police focused on the Balkans, which results in ‘shoestring operations’.41

Crime organizations such as the Kavač and Škaljari — groups that have a presence in several Balkan countries — use ports like Rotterdam for their illicit narcotic shipments.42

The Slovenian chapter of the Kavač crime syndicate, for example, traffics drugs (cannabis and cocaine) to Slovenia from the Netherlands.43

Fighting between the Kavač and Škaljari clans has, in the past, brought violence to Dutch cities.44

Bojana Jovanović, Stevan Dojčinović and Svetlana Đokić, Bad blood: A war between Montenegrin cocaine clans engulfs the Balkans, OCCRP, 5 May 2020. Close footnote

In 2018, for example, a Serbian national was shot dead and another wounded in a pizza restaurant in Amsterdam West.45

Maarten van Dun, Liquidatie leidde naar miljoenen van Servische bende, Het Parool, 10 October 2018. Close footnote

 The Serbian police noted that one of the victims, who was injured but survived, was a member of the Bar-Budva gang in Serbia, which has ties with the Škaljari clan.46

Other criminals from Serbia and Montenegro also import cocaine from Colombia, Brazil and Ecuador through Dutch ports. Serbian criminals reportedly hire Dutch and Belgian ‘brokers’ to retrieve their drugs from the ports and trade other substances with them.47

Montenegrins have allegedly helped fishermen from the Dutch town of Urk smuggle cocaine on fishing barges on open waters.48

Albanian organized crime groups also reportedly cooperate closely with Dutch, Italian and Moroccan criminal organizations and are said to play a key role in the Amsterdam and Rotterdam underworlds.49

‘Albanian groups started at the bottom of the ladder and now have worked their way up,’ confirms an experienced Dutch crime reporter. They run cocaine operations from the Netherlands, via Italy and Albania, to the Balkans and run cocaine labs in large cities like The Hague.50

According to the police, the presence of Albanian gangs in the cannabis trade in the Netherlands increased after a crackdown on cannabis cultivation in Albania between 2013 and 2019.51

EMCDDA and Europol, EU drug market: cannabis - criminal networks, November 2023. Close footnote

Albanian criminals have set up cannabis plantations in residential houses in the province of Limburg,52 but this activity is more lucrative in Spain and the UK than in the Netherlands. They are involved in money laundering and human smuggling.53 Albanian gangs also operate in Ecuador, one of the main sources of cocaine for the Netherlands.54

Bosnian criminals have also gained a foothold in the Dutch drug trade. Originally from Sarajevo, Dutch-Bosnian national Edin Gačanin is believed to have run massive cocaine shipments from South America to Europe from his home in the Netherlands. His gang – the Tito and Dino clan – registered many companies in the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain and Bosnia and Herzegovina to launder drug proceeds.55

Gačanin is believed to have links with the Dutch-Moroccan mafia.56

EMRI/ Shqiptari KREU i bandës ‘TITO dhe DINO’ i arrestuar në Dubai, arrin marrëveshjen me holandezët!, VOX News, 11 December 2023; Jan Meeus, Uitlevering aan Bosnië? ‘Mijn kop gaat eraf als dat gebeurt’, zegt de emotionele drugsverdachte, NRC, 12 February 2024. It is not yet clear how deep the links between the Moroccan-Dutch groups and Gačanin’s Tito and Dino clan are. Close footnote

 He was arrested in Dubai in November 2022, from where he reportedly cut a deal with a Dutch prosecutor, pleading guilty in exchange for a seven-year prison sentence in the Netherlands and a US$1 million fine.57

Another Bosnian-Dutch national with alleged links to the Dutch-Moroccan mafia was arrested on a Dutch extradition notice in 2022 on suspicion of trading in cocaine. He was reportedly hiding in Montenegro (a country with which Dutch authorities have no extradition treaty) and was handed over when visiting Serbia.58

Law enforcement says Boris P, alias Picasso, received orders from Ridouan Taghi – a lynchpin of the Dutch-Moroccan mafia sentenced to a life term in February over a string of murders – from his prison cell in Vught.59 Boris P denies all accusations.60

Groups from North Macedonia have also used Dutch ports to receive cocaine.61

Sinisa Jakov Marusic, North Macedonia busts cocaine smuggling gang linked to murders, Balkan Insight, 26 January 2024. Close footnote

In January 2024, members of a Macedonian criminal group were arrested for involvement in transporting 435 kilograms of cocaine from Brazil to the Belgian port of Antwerp and 106 kilograms from Peru to Rotterdam.62

Law enforcement operations

Law enforcement has been stepping up its efforts to disrupt organized crime in the Netherlands, including through increased international cooperation and the participation of Italian anti-mafia investigators.63

Daniel Boffey, Netherlands becoming a narco-state, warn Dutch police, The Guardian, 20 February 2018; Government of the Netherlands, Ministers Yeşilgöz-Zegerius and Weerwind pay working visit to Italy, 8 June 2022. Close footnote

A Dutch customs diving team is active in the Port of Antwerp in Belgium, and the two countries are collaborating with officials in Latin America.64

Government of the Netherlands, Cocaine seizures by Customs see sharp rise in 2023, 17 January 2024. Close footnote

 The Netherlands and Ecuador have set up a customs treaty to tackle the drug trade from ports in Latin America.65

Government of the Netherlands, International efforts to combat organized crime intensified, 28 September 2023. Close footnote

 As a result, Dutch customs seized around 11 000 kilograms more of cocaine in 2023 than in the previous year.66

Government of the Netherlands, Cocaine seizures by Customs see sharp rise in 2023, 17 January 2024. Close footnote

In recent years, law enforcement in the Western Balkans, the Netherlands and Belgium – in partnership with Eurojust and Europol – have had a significant win: they cracked Sky ECC, an encrypted communication tool favoured by criminals.67

According to a spokesperson for Europol, the agency has ‘an Operational Taskforce … comprising 11 countries focusing specifically on organized crime from the Western Balkans. Over 40 investigations are being developed as part of this Operational Taskforce’.68

Interview with Europol spokesperson, February 2024, by phone; also confirmed by email on 6 February 2024. As investigative work is ongoing, they cannot reveal more on the topic. Close footnote

 This increased effort across Europe has led to several arrests in the Netherlands and the Balkans.

In February 2024, 59 people in Albania, Italy, Germany and the UK were arrested for smuggling heroin, cocaine, hash and cannabis from Albania and the Netherlands to Spain and Germany. Europol said the network used cars with double bottoms and secret compartments.69

Zdravko Ljubas, Massive drug network dismantled from Albania to Germany, OCCRP, 8 February 2024. Close footnote

In 2023, Europol ran an international operation that resulted in the takedown of the biggest cocaine trafficking criminal organization in the Balkan region, with several kingpins arrested in Belgrade.70

This criminal group smuggled drugs from Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador and Aruba and was known for its violence and involvement in high-end robberies.71 Coordinated raids were carried out in Serbia, the Netherlands and Belgium, and police seized luxury cars, jewellery, explosives and weapons, including sniper rifles, automatic rifles and ammunition.72

The same year, in 2023, Rotterdam police found cocaine in a garage. The seizure resulted in police action in Croatia, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to the Croatian police, the Netherlands was used as a transit hub for drugs from Turkey and Montenegro that were imported to the Netherlands, before being cut and distributed across Europe. The police confiscated machine guns, fake identity documents and police uniforms.73

Also in 2023, the German, Italian and Dutch police arrested 35 Albanians involved in the large-scale trafficking of cocaine and cannabis from South America to the EU.74 In 2022, Eurojust arrested seven members of a Serbian-led drug trafficking network in Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Serbia – 115 kilograms of cocaine was seized, found hidden in concrete panels.75

In 2020, Rotterdam police arrested two Albanian criminals who had hidden 300 kilograms of cocaine (worth around €45 million) in their apartment.76

In 2019, Dutch national Pier S was sentenced to 17 years in jail following his arrest in Operation Taxus.77 His organization had used corrupt customs officials and bribed port employees in order to export drugs to the Balkans.78 In 2019, authorities in the US city of Philadelphia seized 20 tonnes of cocaine from a container ship en route to Rotterdam and arrested several Montenegrin crew members.79

Aleksandra Jovanović and Velimir Rakočević, The connections among drug trafficking, money laundering, and aggravated murder – A case study of Montenegro, Revija za kriminalistiko in kriminologijo, 72, 4 (2021), 350–363. Close footnote

Recent police actions have shown that criminals from the Balkans operating internationally are using Dutch ports as entry points for their illicit undertakings, and are taking advantage of the country’s financial systems to launder illicit proceeds. However, the law enforcement response is constrained by limited resources and a lack of expertise in identifying Balkan criminal networks. Criminals from the Western Balkans reportedly make up just 2% of the inmate population in the Netherlands (see Figure 3), with greater representation from Albania and Serbia in 2023.80

Data provided by the Ministry of Justice and Security of the Netherlands. Close footnote

Nationality 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015
Albania 55 64 59 74 86 97 84 84 51
Bosnia and Herzegovina 13 13 14 17 20 22 20 22 23
Kosovo <5 <5 <5 <5 <5 <5 5 7 6
Montenegro <5 <5 <5 <5 <5 <5 <5 <5 5
North Macedonia <5 <5 <5 <5 <5 <5 <5 <5 5
Serbia 14 12 8 15 19 17 19 23 21

Figure 3 Nationals from the Western Balkans currently incarcerated in Dutch prisons.

Source: Ministry of Justice and Security of the Netherlands

Effectively addressing the challenge of Western Balkan criminality in the Netherlands will require enhanced international cooperation, upgraded detection technologies, increased funding for law enforcement and stricter measures against money laundering activities. In light of the overwhelming number of containers entering the Netherlands, conducting thorough checks becomes unfeasible. Therefore, it is paramount that risk assessment and detection techniques for high-risk containers are improved. Moreover, action is required to launch and enforce policies targeting the reduction of drug demand.

Notes

  1. GI-TOC, Global Organized Crime Index 2023: The Netherlands; UNODC and Europol, Cocaine insights 1, December 2021; UNODC, Global report on cocaine 2023. Back to text

  2. Daniel Boffey, Netherlands becoming a narco-state, warn Dutch police, The Guardian, 20 February 2018. Back to text

  3. UNODC, Global report on cocaine 2023. Back to text

  4. Interview with a person familiar with how organized Albanian criminals operate in the Netherlands, Tirana, April 2024. Back to text

  5. The majority reaching Antwerp, Belgium, is probably intended for organizations operating out of the Netherlands, from where the cocaine is distributed to other European destinations. However, these criminal groups maintain close ties with those in the Netherlands, sometimes based on family ties. See UNODC and Europol, Cocaine insights 1, December 2021. Back to text

  6. Interview with a person familiar with how Serbian organized crime operates in the Netherlands, April 2024, by phone. Back to text

  7. Simon Piel and Thomas Saintourens, The Serbian mafia’s ‘house of horror’, Le Monde, 20 May 2022. Back to text

  8. Phillip Pergens, Grootste drugskartel van de Balkan, gelinkt aan vondst van 1,2 ton cocaïne in Hasselt, opgerold, Het Belang Van Limburg, 12 May 2023; Europol, 37 arrested as violent Balkan criminal cell is taken down, 25 May 2023; UNODC, Global report on cocaine 2023; 37 arrestaties bij internationale actie tegen drugs- en wapenbende, NOS, 26 May 2023, Interview with a senior representative of the Dutch police, February 2024, by phone; European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), Cannabis cultivation and trafficking in the Western Balkans, December 2022; Kars de Bruijne, De Nederlandse sleutelrol in de geglobaliseerde drugshandel en productie, Clingendael, January 2021; EMCDDA and Europol, EU Drug Markets Report 2019, p 129; H Ferwerda, J Wolsink and I van Leiden, De lading van vuurwapens: Een onderzoek naar de impact van illegale vuurwapens in Nederland, Politiekunde, 2020. Back to text

  9. EMCDDA, European drug report 2019. Back to text

  10. Pieter Tops et al, The Netherlands and Synthetic Drugs: An Inconvenient Truth, Eleven International Publishing, 2018. Back to text

  11. EMCDDA, Serbia national drug situation overview 2022; Ingrid Gerkama, Droga se kuva u sve većim kazanima, Vreme, 8 January 2024. Back to text

  12. Valentina Pop, Mexican cartels are now cooking Chinese chemicals in Dutch meth labs, The Wall Street Journal, 8 December 2020. Back to text

  13. 37 arrestaties bij internationale actie tegen drugs- en wapenbende, NOS, 26 May 2023; Interview with a senior representative of the Dutch police, January 2024, by phone. Back to text

  14. UNODC, Global report on cocaine 2023. Back to text

  15. Ibid. Back to text

  16. Interview with a person familiar with how Serbian organized crime operates in the Netherlands, April 2024, by phone. Edin Gačanin, known as a major drug dealer, reached a plea deal with the prosecutor’s office in the Netherlands in 2023 and was sentenced to seven years in prison for smuggling 2.4 tonnes of cocaine. Back to text

  17. Eurostat, Maritime freight and vessels statistics, November 2023. Back to text

  18. World Shipping Council, The top 50 container ports. Note: ranking is based on 2019 statistics; Port of Rotterdam, Throughput at the Port of Rotterdam, 2023; and Facts and figures. Back to text

  19. Interview with a Netherlands customs administration official, February 2024, by phone. According to 2017 data, only 0.5% of all containers are inspected in the Port of Rotterdam. See Kars de Bruijne, De Nederlandse sleutelrol in de geglobaliseerde drugshandel en productie, Clingendael, January 2021. Back to text

  20. Noël van Bemmel, 100 procent controle in Rotterdamse haven: ‘Het is symboolpolitiek’, De Volkskrant, 18 February 2022 Back to text

  21. Openbaar Ministerie, HARC-team onderschept bijna 47000 kilo cocaïne in 2022, 10 January 2023. Back to text

  22. Isabel Baneke, Hardnekkig probleem in de Rotterdamse haven: de smokkelaars die drugs uit containers veiligstellen, Trouw, 1 February 2021; Jeremy McDermott et al, The cocaine pipeline to Europe, GI‑TOC and InSight Crime, February 2021. Back to text

  23. Over 1,700 kilograms of cocaine found in banana and jelly shipments, NL Times, 22 December 2023. Back to text

  24. Kars de Bruijne, De Nederlandse sleutelrol in de geglobaliseerde drugshandel en productie, Clingendael, January 2021. Back to text

  25. Interview with a senior representative of the Hit and Run Cargo Team from the Dutch Police, February 2024, by phone. Back to text

  26. GI-TOC, Global Organized Crime Index 2023: Netherlands. Back to text

  27. Ibid. Back to text

  28. Inte Gloerich et al, Flying money 2018: Investigating illicit financial flows in the city, Institute of Network Cultures, 2018; Victor D van Santvoord and Teun van Ruitenburg, Financial crime scripting: Introducing a financial perspective to the Dutch cocaine trade, The Police Journal, 96, 3 (2023), pp 374–389. Back to text

  29. Kars de Bruijne, De Nederlandse sleutelrol in de geglobaliseerde drugshandel en productie, Clingendael, January 2021. Back to text

  30. Nederland tegen georganiseerde misdaad, Gemeente en vastgoedbelegger bestrijden samen crimineel woningmisbruik, 28 September 2022. Back to text

  31. Kars de Bruijne, De Nederlandse sleutelrol in de geglobaliseerde drugshandel en productie, Clingendael, January 2021. Back to text

  32. UNODC, Global report on cocaine 2023. Back to text

  33. Interview with a senior representative of the Dutch police, February 2024, by phone; Interview with a crime reporter from the Netherlands, February 2024, by phone. Back to text

  34. GI-TOC, Global Organized Crime Index 2023: Netherlands; Netherlands among worst nations for human trafficking, but number of reports declining, NL Times, 18 October 2022. Back to text

  35. Interview with a senior representative of the Dutch police, February 2024, by phone. Back to text

  36. Europol, 382 arrests during joint actions against traffickers using the Balkan route, 4 November 2022. Back to text

  37. EMCDDA and Europol, EU drug market: cannabis — criminal networks, November 2023. Back to text

  38. David Weinberger et al, Illegal cannabis cultivation in Europe: new developments, EchoGéo, 48, 2019. Back to text

  39. Interview with Dutch police spokesperson, January 2024, by phone. Back to text

  40. Interview with a senior representative of the Dutch police, February 2024, by phone. Back to text

  41. Ibid. Back to text

  42. Ibid. Back to text

  43. Indictments filed against 24 Slovenian members of Kavač clan, Total Slovenia News, 4 November 2021. Back to text

  44. Bojana Jovanović, Stevan Dojčinović and Svetlana Đokić, Bad blood: A war between Montenegrin cocaine clans engulfs the Balkans, OCCRP, 5 May 2020. Back to text

  45. Maarten van Dun, Liquidatie leidde naar miljoenen van Servische bende, Het Parool, 10 October 2018. Back to text

  46. ‘Vete tussen Montenegrijnse drugsclans achter Amsterdamse moordaanslag’, Crimesite, 5 May 2020; Andrej Mlakar, Škaljari i Kavčani: Zbog dva sela, gori Evropa cela, Nova, 28 May 2020. Back to text

  47. Patrick Lefelon, Gegijzelde Mohamed Azzaoui stuurt videoboodschap om onschuld te bewijzen: ‘King en Smiley hebben 1.000 kg cocaïne gestolen’, PZC, 3 March 2023. Back to text

  48. ‘Vete tussen Montenegrijnse drugsclans achter Amsterdamse moordaanslag’, Crimesite, 5 May 2020. Back to text

  49. Alban Dafa and Wouter Zweers, Together or alone? The need for increased Albanian-Dutch cooperation to fight transnational organised crime, Clingendael, August 2020; Observatory of Illicit Economies in South Eastern Europe, Albanian organized crime groups have become key players in Italy’s criminal landscape, prompting targeted operations from authorities, Risk Bulletin, Issue 15, GI-TOC, May 2023; ‘Criminele Albanezen zijn dé opkomende groep in de drugshandel’, NOS, 8 November 2017. Back to text

  50. UNODC, Global report on cocaine 2023; Eurojust, Strike against an Albanian drug trafficking network in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, 23 June 2023; Eric Oosterom, Albanezen die in hun onderbroek naast 300 kilo coke sliepen, moeten vijf jaar naar de gevangenis, AD, 26 April 2021; Openbaar Ministerie, Albanese bende runde twee cocaïnelabs in Den Haag, 2 July 2020. Back to text

  51. EMCDDA and Europol, EU drug market: cannabis - criminal networks, November 2023. Back to text

  52. Remco Andringa, Hoe Albanese criminelen ongemerkt in de Limburgse wiethandel stapten, NOS, 21 May 2019. Back to text

  53. Ibid. Back to text

  54. Ontsnapte drugsbaas en grof geweld: vier vragen over de onrust in Ecuador, NOS, 10 January 2024. Back to text

  55. Zdravko Ljubas, U.S. sanctions narco boss from Bosnia and Herzegovina, OCCRP, 20 March 2023. Back to text

  56. EMRI/ Shqiptari KREU i bandës ‘TITO dhe DINO’ i arrestuar në Dubai, arrin marrëveshjen me holandezët!, VOX News, 11 December 2023; Jan Meeus, Uitlevering aan Bosnië? ‘Mijn kop gaat eraf als dat gebeurt’, zegt de emotionele drugsverdachte, NRC, 12 February 2024. It is not yet clear how deep the links between the Moroccan-Dutch groups and Gačanin’s Tito and Dino clan are. Back to text

  57. Edin Gacanin gets seven years in prison for smuggling 2.4 tons of cocaine, Sarajevo Times, 8 December 2023. Back to text

  58. Joris Peters, Aan Taghi gelinkte Boris P. stond in contact met wereldwijd gezochte ‘Bolle Jos’, NU, 2 August 2023; Paul Vugts, Van drugssmokkel verdachte Boris P. ontkent band met criminele kopstukken, Het Parool, 2 August 2023. Back to text

  59. Ibid. Back to text

  60. Ibid. Back to text

  61. Sinisa Jakov Marusic, North Macedonia busts cocaine smuggling gang linked to murders, Balkan Insight, 26 January 2024. Back to text

  62. Ibid. Back to text

  63. Daniel Boffey, Netherlands becoming a narco-state, warn Dutch police, The Guardian, 20 February 2018; Government of the Netherlands, Ministers Yeşilgöz-Zegerius and Weerwind pay working visit to Italy, 8 June 2022. Back to text

  64. Government of the Netherlands, Cocaine seizures by Customs see sharp rise in 2023, 17 January 2024. Back to text

  65. Government of the Netherlands, International efforts to combat organized crime intensified, 28 September 2023. Back to text

  66. Government of the Netherlands, Cocaine seizures by Customs see sharp rise in 2023, 17 January 2024. Back to text

  67. Europol, New major interventions to block encrypted communications of criminal networks, 10 March 2021. Back to text

  68. Interview with Europol spokesperson, February 2024, by phone; also confirmed by email on 6 February 2024. As investigative work is ongoing, they cannot reveal more on the topic. Back to text

  69. Zdravko Ljubas, Massive drug network dismantled from Albania to Germany, OCCRP, 8 February 2024. Back to text

  70. Europol, Balkans’ biggest drug lords arrested after investigation into encrypted phones, 12 May 2023. Back to text

  71. Phillip Pergens, Grootste drugskartel van de Balkan, gelinkt aan vondst van 1,2 ton cocaïne in Hasselt, opgerold, Het Belang Van Limburg, 12 May 2023; Europol, 37 arrested as violent Balkan criminal cell is taken down, 25 May 2023. Back to text

  72. Ibid. Back to text

  73. 37 arrestaties bij internationale actie tegen drugs- en wapenbende, NOS, 26 May 2023. Back to text

  74. Ibid. Back to text

  75. Eurojust, Serbian-led drug smuggling network halted in Belgium, Luxembourg and Netherlands, 2 December 2022. Back to text

  76. Eric Oosterom, Albanezen die in hun onderbroek naast 300 kilo coke sliepen, moeten vijf jaar naar de gevangenis, AD, 26 April 2021. Back to text

  77. Court of Justice (The Hague), Lange celstraffen in megastrafzaak Taxus over internationale drugshandel, 12 October 2023. Back to text

  78. Ibid. Back to text

  79. Aleksandra Jovanović and Velimir Rakočević, The connections among drug trafficking, money laundering, and aggravated murder – A case study of Montenegro, Revija za kriminalistiko in kriminologijo, 72, 4 (2021), 350–363. Back to text

  80. Data provided by the Ministry of Justice and Security of the Netherlands. Back to text