Growing cocaine use in several EU countries, and increased seizures of cocaine on air, sea and land routes, have become subjects of increasing concern to policymakers. This datasheet provides a short review of key issues relating to how cocaine is manufactured in Latin America and transported to European consumers via the Atlantic, Caribbean and west Africa. It also looks at the destabilising effect of the cocaine trade on producer and transshipment countries.

Table of contents
• Introduction
• Coca and cocaine production in the Andean-Amazonian region
• Estimating coca cultivation
• Estimating cocaine production
• Suppressing coca in Colombia
• Drug production and the land issue in Colombia
• Drug production and armed groups in Colombia
• Main trafficking routes to Europe
• Importation to Europe and distribution
• Potassium permanganate
• International supply reduction initiatives at the EU level
• Conclusions
• References