Cocaine trafficking routes are constantly changing as criminal groups adapt to geography, enforcement pressures and new opportunities. Across Latin America and the Caribbean, these shifts are creating and reshaping corridors that connect cocaine-producing regions with markets in France and across Europe.
Cocaine Corridors brings together GI-TOC research on these changing dynamics through a series of reports, webinars and six case studies. Together, they examine how trafficking routes evolve, the actors involved and the regional connections that shape the cocaine trade.
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REPORT
Brazilian Amazon, New trafficking corridors and expanding criminal control
The Brazilian Amazon has become an increasingly important corridor for cocaine moving from producing regions in Latin America to European markets. Trafficking routes have expanded and diversified over the past 15 years, alongside the growing presence of major criminal groups such as the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and Comando Vermelho (CV).
This report examines how cocaine flows are being rerouted through the Amazon, with Amapá emerging as an important export hub alongside established routes through Belém. Traffickers are also diversifying their methods, using fishing vessels, submersibles, armoured speedboats, containerised cargo, small aircraft and clandestine airstrips.
The expansion of the cocaine trade is increasingly connected to other illicit economies, particularly illegal gold mining. Criminal groups are reinvesting drug profits in gold, while using mining infrastructure and networks to support trafficking operations. The report examines these convergences and proposes measures to strengthen cross-border cooperation, oversight at export hubs and investigations into cocaine–gold links.
Key findings
- The Brazilian Amazon is becoming an increasingly significant cocaine corridor linking Latin American producing regions with Europe.
- Amapá, particularly Macapá and Santana, is emerging as an important trafficking and export hub, while Belém remains a major exit point.
- The CV has expanded its influence across the Amazon and plays a growing role in cocaine exports through Amapá.
- Traffickers are diversifying both routes and transport methods.
- Cocaine trafficking is increasingly intersecting with illegal gold mining and other illicit economies.
- Stronger cross-border cooperation, export-hub oversight and investigation of cocaine–gold convergence are needed.
WEBINAR SERIES
Cocaine corridors (Part I)
New dynamics through the Amazon and Caribbean
Watch the first Cocaine Corridors webinar and explore how cocaine trafficking routes are evolving across the Amazon and Caribbean.
The discussion traces routes from the Andes through the Amazon to the Caribbean coast and their links to Europe.
CASE STUDIES
Cocaine trafficking to France
Explore six case studies tracing cocaine routes across Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and southern Europe. From Colombia and the Amazon to French overseas territories, the Sahel and the Mediterranean, they show how routes and criminal networks adapt as cocaine moves towards France and Europe.
Coming soon to Cocaine Corridors:
Upcoming reports will explore cocaine trafficking in Colombia, the Lesser Antilles, Suriname and French Guiana, and France, tracing evolving routes and connections to Europe.
Further reports, webinars and analysis will be added as the series develops.
About the GI-TOC
The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime is a network of professionals working on the front lines of the fight against the illicit economy and criminal actors. Through a network of global civil society observatories on the illicit economy, we monitor evolving trends and work to build the evidence basis for policy action, disseminate the expertise of our Network, and catalyze multisectoral and holistic responses across a range of crime types. With the Global Initiative's Resilience Fund, we support community activists and local non-governmental organizations working in areas where crime governance critically undermines people's safety, security and life chances.
This project was developed by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC)’s Caribbean Observatory, Observatory of Organized Crime in Europe and Observatory of Illicit Economies in the Amazon Basin. Part of the GI-TOC’s broader analysis of transatlantic drug trafficking, the project was funded by MILDECA, the French government’s Interministerial Mission for Combating Drugs and Addictive Behaviours, under the authority of the prime minister.
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