Synthetic drugs in Europe (an overview)

Europe at the heart of international networks

The below table gives details about names of the drug and the precursor(s) used to for the respective synthesis of each drug. As chemical reactions are required for the synthesis, these drugs are named synthetic drugs.

Alexandre PAMART, Compliance Specialist, PhD program at CEDS Paris

All rights belong to the author, Alexandre PAMART and Institut Talleyrand.

This article is part of the ongoing thesis prepared at CEDS by the author.

INSTITUT TALLEYRAND - TOUS DROITS RÉSERVÉS

Table : main precursors and related drugs

Trafficking synthetic drugs to Europe

Supplies of PMK / BMK are exported usually from China, with Chinese criminals having major market shares on PMK (but also on BMK to a minor extent). Substances are illegally sent inside other containers to the Netherlands. In practice, the shipments contain main export products between the two countries (i.e. toys, garments, food, especially seafood). In China (and also in other countries of Southeast Asia), the trees at the basis of PMK precursors are growing (26).

This natural factor accounts partly for Chinese important market shares on export of ecstasy precursors. Historically the heads of PMK / BMK exporting networks are supposed to originate from Hong Kong and Guandong and live in the Netherlands. Local Chinese communities care to receive the exports. Then the PMK / BMK (precursors) or more recently the pre-precursors are sold to criminal groups (in the Netherlands / Belgium) owning laboratories for production of pills. (1) In the Netherlands amphetamine and ecstasy represent an unlawful business worth tens of billions of dollars a year. The Netherlands and Belgium gangs produce pills and export them worldwide (always more often in cooperation with the help of the Asian suppliers). The interaction is qualified as a mutual cooperation between Dutch and Asian groups, especially the Vietnamese (2).

Eastern Europe : synthetic drugs

At the begin of last decade Europol and EMCDDA informed that meth market is expanding beyond the Czech Republic and Slovakia in Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Baltic countries and Scandinavia. Eastern Europe still constitutes a valuable consumer market. Most of the production from the more recent laboratories in the Netherlands is exported to a wide range of European countries while even in the US, Middle East (thorugh Turkey, a transit hub for heroine) or to Asia (Japan, Australia).

In some more recent markets, methamphetamine challenged the traditional use of amphetamine. (14) Seizures of methamphetamines in the EU increased at an impressive rate of 477% over the last decade (2010- 2020). Recent analysis of wastewater evidenced an widespread use of metamphetamine in Cyprus (especially in the major cities like Limassol and Larnaca). On the other hand, the use amphetamine and ecstasy is not much frequent (21, 15). The upwards trend might be explained by the adapted metamphetamine itinerary.

Due to the war in Ukraine, the drug is heading to the Carpathian region and even more southwards (close to Greek islands, Cyprus, Turkey)…

Alexandre PAMART, Compliance Specialist, PhD program at CEDS Paris All rights belong to the author, Alexandre PAMART and Institut Talleyrand. This article is part of the ongoing thesis prepared at CEDS by the author.

INSTITUT TALLEYRAND - TOUS DROITS RÉSERVÉS

Bibliography

(1) European Parliament, Directorate-General for internal policies, Asian Organized crime in the EU, Note, 2011

(2) How Asian trafficking network operates in Europe

(3) China and synthetic drugs control, Brookings, Foreign Policy, p.48-49

(14) EMCDDA, Europol, EU Drug markets Report, A strategic analysis, Case study 2 Methamphetamine production and trafficking increasing in Europe, « no mention of any date on the document though the graph focus on 2001-2011 thus the documend might be be from 2012. »

(15) Factuel, L'Europe et les drogues de synthèse : l'Ukraine et les Pays-Bas, importants pôles de production de la meth, 24 Avril 2023

(21) Philenews, In-Cyprus, Methamphetamine use increasing in Cyprus, shows wastewater analysis, 22/03/2023

(26) Reuters, Cambodia to destroy all 'ecstasy oil' stocks, 27/01/2010