There is a geopolitical cliché that applies like a glove to Portugal: the geographical position of a State’s territory determines its international role. Our country is here to prove it. It is the only European country that is only Atlantic and is the closest to the Americas – a feat that makes it, according to the latest report from the United Nations Agency on Drugs and Crime (UNODC, its acronym in English), one of the most large ports of entry for cocaine by sea in Europe.
But it’s not just because of its geography that Portugal is a transit point. United Nations experts guarantee that a “very significant” part of cocaine is trafficked through ports. A drug is shipped from South America hidden in containers among innocent merchandise. In Portugal, to the despair of the National Unit to Combat Drug Trafficking and the Judiciary Police, there is a shortage of X-ray gantries capable of detecting drugs stored at the entrances of containers – which makes Portugal a refreshing oasis for trafficking networks. increasingly organized and every day with more resources.
Portuguese ports, according to the Mobility and Transport Authority, handled three million pieces of content in 2022 – and two million, according to the latest known figures, in the first eight months of last year. Europe’s largest port, Rotterdam, handles an average of 15 million a year, and the second largest, Antwerp, handles 10 million.
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