Not only the market coffeehe cocoa or the Matcha It crosses turbulence. Analysts and authorities They check that there is another much less orthodox merchandise that is suffering a considerable pricing, at least in the wholesale channels, with the kilo collapsed from the More than 30,000 euros They got to pay only a few years ago at less than 20,000 or even 15,000. Which? Cocaine The price decrease is so pronounced that There are those already esteem that in Galicia the white dust has reached its historical minimum.
The big question is … why?
The kilo, getting cheaper. It is not easy to talk about prices and cargoes of cocaine because the merchandise (obviously) does not move in a regulated market, but a quick review of the newspaper library arrives to make a clear idea: a kilo costs less today less (quite) than just a decade ago.
The voice of Galicia He published Sunday A chronicle that accounts for that collapse, especially in the Baixas estuaries. If in 2015 a kilo brick was paid between 27,000 and 29,000 eurosnow moves at 14,500, its historical minimum, according to the newspaper. In other parts of the country, such as Valencia, Barcelona or the great ports of Andalusia, the kilo would also be at least, charging about 17,000 euros, far from the more than 30,000 to those that were quoted ten years ago.
A fact: 30,000 euros. It is not the only clue about the bassist drift of the price of wholesale coca, a trend that the authorities They would have been Noting. In 2023 the CEP police union already spoke of a reduction of the merchandise in the large channels. The figures are only references, but they are eloquent: of a maximum of up to 36,000 euros, the kilo had become quoted in a fork of Between 18,000 and 23,000. Last year the UDYCO He went further And he already spoke of between 21,000 and 22,000 euros, with even lower periods, of around 16,000.
Price question and something else. The drift of prices coincides with greater activity on commercial routes and market saturation. And that is something that is confirmed with another equally relevant indicator: the police also hunt more vs. 2023 closed with a Seizure record of cocaine Transported by sea and an operation for memory, the interception of a historic stash in Spain: 11 tons from Ecuador distributed between Valencia and Vigo.
“The kilo is between 18,000 and 20,000 euros, lower than ever. A year and a half ago it reached 25,000 or 26,000 euros. If you have more drugs you risk more, you send huge shipments,” explained in 2024 Police al ABCmonths before the authorities fell another stash of 13 tons camouflaged between bananas.
In your latest report Insight Crime warns: “The record seizures became the norm worldwide, but it is likely that those confiscated tons only made a small dent in what has become one of the most lucrative and violent industries for crime in Latin America.”
A relative cheaper. The most curious thing is that this price drop does not seem to have moved to the street. In wholesale channels perhaps the kilo of white dust costs now half That a few years ago, but the cheaper does not seem to have moved to the end of the chain. The gram of coca continues to pay between 50 either 60 euroswithout experiencing great variations in recent years. The phenomenon is not exclusive to Spain and extends to other parts of Europe.
“In Belgium, 17,000 per kilo are being paid, but that contrasts with the price paid by the final consumer. It remains stable, in the order of 60 euros the gram. That greatest margin between one price and another could be the one that allows the entry of the greatest amount of links in the distribution chain. In addition, that decrease in the wholesaler could be the cause that organizations make larger shipments to maintain the benefit,” Explain Customs a The voice of Galicia.
And what is the reason? The million dollar question. And it does not have a single answer. Those who have tried to explain the fall in the price of coca point to the effects of the signing of the peace agreement between the Colombian State and the guerrillas In 2016what would have released hectares of jungle that have taken advantage of for cultivation, or The effect which has had the veto of toxic herbicides in the plantations.
The reason? The Colombian authorities find it very difficult to eradicate the hidden plantations in the jungle acting from the ground, where they meet former guerrillas and mines, so for years they resorted to air fumigation with glyphosate, an effective resource to end illegal crops. The problem is that this herbicide is carcinogenic and polluting, so the authorities They stopped using it in his fight against cocaine. Now, in a scenario of Overproduction which explains the fall in prices, the country already He is thinking If you must recover it.
Are there more factors at stake? Yes. Although There are analysts that suggest that everything is a Overproduction issue In countries of origin, others also point out the influence of pandemic. “Farmers continued to produce as always, about three crops a year, and the warehouses of the most powerful organizations were filled with cocaine at such a level that we are still receiving that surplus,” explained In 2024 a UDYCO inspector to The reason.
“That is why two of the three largest apprehensions in Spain have been in 2023. We also see that ships bring a lot more than they brought,” adds the inspector. In summary: a simple matter of supply, demand and exit of an accumulated stock at low prices to get rid of the material.
New actors at stake. Recently The confidential He slipped One more key: an attempt by the Albanian clans that operate from South America to flood the market, a strategy that would go through “bombarding” with shipments of cargo to “a price never seen” and eliminate intermediaries that reduce the benefits.
“They are taking the structures,” He recounts an agent that operates mainly on the coast of Andalusia. One of the keys is that the cost of the merchandise lowers, but its price is paid for a gram of coca in the street.
Images | Ecuador’s Ministry of Government (Flickr), Colin Davis (UNSPLASH) and National Police
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