Cocaine for Germany | DW Documentary

Cocaine for Germany | DW Documentary

Cocaine is sweeping through Germany like never before. Getting cocaine in Berlin is as easy as buying cigarettes. Available whenever, wherever, and with enormous profits! Buying high quality makes you a minimum 100 percent profit per capsule. Cocaine is an integral part of Germany’s party scene.

It keeps you awake and puts you in a good mood. International drug gangs run a perfectly organized smuggling network. The swallowing system is very risky, because when they burst in your stomach you can die. Never before have the drug cartels seemed so powerful. Show your hands!

We can’t control this huge flood of cocaine through checks. Germany is on cocaine. What can stop the drug crisis? Through the night, cocaine is the stuff of this breathless big city. Getting it seems easier than ever. Demand is growing and growing. In this film, we follow the journey of cocaine

From cultivation in South America, the smuggling route via Africa and Spain, to the dealers and consumers in Berlin. We want to know how the business works, what authorities are doing about the boom, and who is profiting. But why is cocaine so celebrated in Germany?

These are the hay days for cocaine dealers like these two; we are calling them Jonas and Max. They’ve been dealing for over six years and can see how the business is changing. Nowadays you can deal online. You don’t have to be strong or anything anymore. DarkNet or Telegram make it easier.

And as a result, many people have recognized the gap in the market and have simply joined in. Cocaine is not stuck in the shadows. In the upper classes, no one can manage without it. The lawyers can’t, judges can’t. Policemen, officials, we’ve seen it all. Everybody uses. Cocaine has become the coffee of America,

And it’s now the coffee of the world. Cocaine can boost mood and performance and it’s no longer just a party drug. Many also do cocaine during the day when work or private problems become too great. When I started using cocaine, it still had a positive effect, so I felt good.

Many people get a great euphoric feeling and feel very alive and very strong. Cocaine is a drug that makes you feel a lot. Marie was addicted to cocaine for several years and has only been clean for a few months. She works as a lobbyist and advises politicians, among others. It’s a stressful job.

At first she only did cocaine at parties, but later she began taking the drug to be more efficient at work. Over time, she lost control. At one point I needed three needles a day. On average, I spent 100 to 150 daily. I must have shot up 20 or 30 times a day,

At least five or six times at work, and then probably another ten to 15 times in the evening. Ultimately you don’t even notice it anymore, because it’s like eating chips in front of the TV. Cocaine users come from all social classes. Dealing is illegal, but those who want to get high in Germany

Have few problems finding it. Whether in the club, on the street, in cab rides home or in the bar especially in big cities it’s almost ubiquitous. It is becoming increasingly difficult for investigators to monitor trafficking. Olaf Schremm is head of the Berlin drug squad, and sees this as a major problem for Germany.

With this Europe-wide cocaine desire, we’ve noticed in Germany and Berlin especially that we have more criminal investigations against people who have it in their possession. And in particular against those who deal. Several kilos were seized during a raid. The substance goes to the laboratory to determine the degree of purity.

Here we have the first results for cocaine. As a rule, anything with more than 80% is highly pure cocaine. That’s standard. Yes, standard. This means that the product isn’t becoming diluted along the distribution chain. Not at all, they’ve perfected the manufacturing.

There is an unlimited supply, and also no change in the market price. We have fairly constant prices for cocaine on the black market, and we also have a constant level of ingredients we are checking in samples we have seized. This means that the market continues to function unchanged,

Although in some cases, many tons are being withdrawn from circulation. Ever more, ever purer: the cocaine supply seems to never tire. The port of Hamburg is considered a major gateway in Germany. Here, customs authorities intercept growing quantities of cocaine, a sign of how much of the substance is in circulation.

These are the classic kilo packages of cocaine from almost all captures: well packed and odor-proof. What a success. Customs seized over 16 tons of cocaine in the port of Hamburg. It’s a successful and large find for Hamburg customs. 16 tons of very pure cocaine from Paraguay, packed in tins of putty.

Estimated market value: several billion euros. It was the largest find of cocaine in Europe. These are quantities that were unimaginable just a few years ago. Then, we were dealing with 20, 50, 80 kilos; today it’s 16 tons. The amount of cocaine seized in Germany is steadily increasing.

But despite all the successful searches, cocaine seems omnipresent. Four and a half kilos are consumed every day in Berlin as evidenced by residue in the wastewater. Dealers like Jonas and Max sell to consumers. Demand has risen continually since they’ve been in business. I didn’t want to.

I sorted out something for myself, then more and more people came. Oh, you sorted yourself, so can’t you help me? they would say. Then you do that and suddenly loads more people come. So many. And then you say f*ck it. That’s what happens in most cases. Normally not with a mask.

I f***ed my life. Jonas and Max fill the cocaine capsules for the nightly delivery. They get about 100 euros per gram, depending on the quality. If you buy high quality, you don’t have to be very profit-oriented to make 100 percent profit on a capsule. 100 percent of your purchase price is profit.

You buy 50 euros a gram, sell it for the standard 100. 100 percent profit. Jonas and Max bring the product directly to their customers’ homes. Nocturnal drug couriers: an illegal business and yet quite normal in the middle of the city’s daily life. Maria, too, needed more and more as time went on.

Cocaine is expensive. In some cases, she was spending 2,000 euros a month. All her savings went to the drug. When I realized that with the amount I consume a day I wouldn’t be able to pay the rent next month That’s when I actually realized the extent of it.

I would have to think of ways how to get money quickly. And when it became clear to me that I was at the point that I would prostitute myself to get money for drug use, that was already quite so that was already rock bottom for me, my very personal rock bottom.

So I personally didn’t know how I could save myself from that. What I had left of myself. Following three years on cocaine, Marie went into withdrawal. Her body reacted with strong, fever-like symptoms. She had to regularly cool down with cold water. She also had therapy to overcome the mental dependency as well.

Marie wants to make it, but the road out of addiction is long. Hanspeter Eckert provides psychological care to addicts during their withdrawal. The treatment plan includes regular sessions at a therapy center. Last week a friend of mine was invited to a birthday and asked me if I would like to go.

I did not know the birthday girl or other guests at the celebration. And you didn’t realize that there were any situations or opportunities where something might happen? No, I didn’t. And did it shake you? Did you leave, as we practised? Yes, we practised that. When I realized what was happening,

I sat there for about ten minutes and then I knew that I had to go. I told my friend and she reacted immediately and also left. Did you later regret your decision not to consume? No, and that was a first. Other times I did regret, but not this time. Cool.

Cocaine is so harmful because it makes you, as the person affected, dependent such that you can no longer complete tasks that are worthwhile to you, because you want to consume all the time. In those times of consumption, most female patients withdraw socially to a large degree, and are no longer reachable at all.

Once you’ve become an addict, it’s hard. Only about one third succeed in quitting permanently; all the others relapse. The damage to people and society is enormous. From South America, cocaine travels all over the world. On its way to consumers, it can become increasingly impure and expensive.

The product’s route to Europe is either direct or via Africa. There, deliveries often change hands in West African states, mostly Guinea-Bissau or Nigeria. The substance is transported by container, on ships or by air, or inside the body of a smuggler. The starting price in Colombia is around 3,000 euros per kilo;

In Germany, dealers charge more than ten times that. The Kenyan city of Mombasa. With the largest port in East Africa, a new drug trafficking route has recently developed here. Heroin from Asia and cocaine from Latin America now often take this route to Europe. And for good reason:

The Kenyan coast is long and poorly monitored. We are on our way to a suburb in Mombasa, where African drug cartels operate. We meet a smuggler, we’ve called him Idris. He belongs to a Kenyan drug cartel and, wishes to remain anonymous. This conversation is dangerous for everyone. It could cost him his life.

There is a lot of risk. My family can be hijacked, kidnapped, they can be killed. And also my life can be in danger in many ways. For the past four years, Idris has been smuggling drugs to Europe and Asia, including cocaine, as a mule. To swallow they are put in a silicon material.

You put it in a salad oil and then you swallow, slowly by slowly. But you make sure you have not eaten any food which has acid. And when you are reaching the plane you just drink water, when they bring you food you pretend to eat.

Because if they see that you are not eating frequently, they can suspect you and deliver you to the security. It is easy to get there. You see after reaching the airport, before you go to the scanning machine there is a person who is waiting there.

We use the backdoors after going they are taking a vehicle you go to a hotel so that you can remove your stuff. The swallowing system is very risky because when they bust in your stomach you can die. But I do it because I need money to support my family.

The smuggled cocaine typically ends up in German clubs via dealers, getting party-goers high. But the road here is long and extremely dangerous. Smugglers like Idris risk getting caught and going to jail every time they travel. But once you’re in the system, escaping is near impossible.

I regret why I entered to this system, because now I can not get out. The dons can send somebody to come and kidnap your family, because they believe when you get out they leak the information to the security agents. It is not morally correct because I

Know that I’m effecting a lot of youth. Through my job. Sometimes I regret, tears come from my eyes but I can not do anything. I just leave, only god will judge me. Idris knows exactly which routes the large quantities of cocaine take from East Africa to Europe. To Europe, after reaching South Africa,

It is transported to Nigeria, after Nigeria it goes to Tunisia or Morocco, there they transport using the fishing boat. And there is a route after reaching Tanzania from Kenya, to Southern Sudan, Khartoum, after Khartoum it is imported through the dessert using the camel until it reaches

Tunisia or Morocco and than it goes by boat. That is the easiest route. La Línea de la Concepción, in southern Spain. The city is considered the gateway for drug smuggling between Africa and Europe. In the 1970s, drug traffickers made the Strait of Gibraltar their European base.

For fifty years, the trade here has been primarily in hashish, but now, there’s a new business: cocaine. The largest quantities arrive at the port of Algeciras. We have an appointment with Mike. He works for one of the largest narcotics cartels in Spain. We’ve reached him after a lot of research

And through various contacts that have led us deeper and deeper into the fray. Mike organizes the logistics so that drugs can leave the port unnoticed before they are distributed all over Europe. His salary is 200,000 euros a month! Here, he talks to the press for the first time.

There is someone who makes sure that the container is not in the register. And as soon as possible, the goods leave the port in the truck. Then it is taken to a safe storage place. I see to it that the goods come out of the port and are taken to a safe place.

That’s where the customers come and pick them up, usually taking them to the coast or to Europe. Every year, thousands of kilos of cocaine arrive at the port of Algeciras. Mike knows exactly how much, but he won’t say. It’s more than people think.

I won’t give you numbers, but it’s more than people realize. Just like the bananas come in, or the oranges, or shoes. At the end of the day, it’s a business like any other, and if there’s demand, you have to be there to serve it. There are smaller,

Independent gangs that transport cocaine by speedboat. That also works, but the most common and safer way is by container. Cartels use speedboats to transport more than 280 tons of drugs, including cocaine, every month, on the 14 kilometer strait separating Spain and Morocco. Carlos Pose Suarez works for Spanish customs. He’spreparing for an operation

A night patrol to detect smugglers from Morocco on the Strait of Gibraltar. It is not uncommon for customs and police officers to chase down smugglers. Often they escape because they take greater risks and drive faster. Carlos and his colleagues are prepared for anything. We carry weapons and sometimes we do use them.

It is not frequent, rather rare actually, but they can be used. But it is clear that when they are used, it is only as a deterrent to stop them when they are making very dangerous maneuvers.” It is an elaborate and expensive fight.

In 2018, Spain launched a security plan to tackle illegal drug smuggling. In mid-2020, its budget was increased by 48.2 million euros. Although arrests have increased, the problem is still far from under control. Carlos’ radar indicates movement. For safety reasons, we turn off the cabin lights. We have detected a possible target on radar.

It is very faint, but something is moving. We are preparing for anything. There Here we can see that it is moving. We will approach slowly and prepare in case it’s a smuggler. Carlos and his team pick up speed, crossing the ocean at 100 kilometers per hour Something is there, but… Okay.

It has no light. We’ve lost it. It was a false alarm. But we have to check everything. When the sea is so rough, it’s hard to distinguish between waves and a possible target. Sometimes there are chases and it’s not easy to stay calm and keep your cool.

It can get a bit dicey though too. But safety always comes first, in other words, staying alive is more important than catching the smugglers. Police officers estimate that up to ten speedboats bring drugs ashore here every night. Two to three times a week they can track down and convict smugglers,

Filmed here by the Spanish civil guard. The authorities also often make large cocaine finds in the port of Algeciras. In early 2022, two tons of cocaine were found in a container declared as frozen pike. Authorities are primarily concerned with tracking down the people behind it. Here, police are preparing for a raid.

They allow us to accompany the dangerous operation. Today we start an operation to tackle money laundering. We will carry out 6 raids simultaneously in the provinces of Cadiz and Malaga. Here we go. We start with the colleagues who storm the buildings the special unit.

This is an area with youth unemployment higher than 80 percent. The average wage is 1,050 euros a month. In just one day, smugglers can earn several thousand euros. And so, more and more young people are getting involved in the illegal drug business. We never know who we will find behind a door.

The danger is always in the unknown. Usually things turn out well, but there have been cases where we have run into dangerous situations, some even involving gunfire. Regular raids are intended to dismantle the criminal structures. There are several raids like this one at least two days a week.

The moments just before the raid are the most dangerous. We stay back. The operation goes smoothly. The suspect is arrested without resistance. The next step is to search the place. We’ve recovered money, more than 6,000 euros. We also found a large hole of 5, 6 meters. But that was empty.

It was under a cabinet, so it was very likely intended as a hiding place. For the trial, we document everything important so that there is clear evidence. The fact is that this is about smuggling with cocaine and money laundering, which is to say: drug trafficking.

It’s a huge effort by the Coast Guard and the police. And yet La Línea remains a gateway to Europe for hashish and cocaine. Nowhere in Europe are more narcotics seized than in Spain, with its thousands of kilometers of maritime coast bordering the Mediterranean and Atlantic.

Nearly 50 tons of cocaine were seized by Spanish authorities in Spain in 2020 alone. Yet that’s just a drop in the ocean. This cocaine business is running the world. Buy anything, buy the government! You buy what you need to buy and the people you need to buy, to make your business run well.

And because it’s so much money, people get involved. Some of the expensive neighborhoods in La Linea didn’t exist until a few years ago. Where their residents’ money comes from is an open secret. The port of Rotterdam the largest deep-water port in Europe. Millions of containers are handled here every year

And it’s impossible to check each one for contraband. Nevertheless, large quantities of cocaine are being intercepted here with increasing frequency. We meet customs officers in their daily work. For security reasons, we’re not publishing their names. They are on their way to monitor the containers. Using a brand-new procedure,

The number of containers checked here has increased tenfold. The individual containers are no longer opened as before, instead, an air sample is taken and secured. Later, dogs can efficiently check the samples without having to be led to each container. We only need three minutes per container to extract the air.

Normally, it takes much longer. So now we can check many more containers. It even works on board a ship: we can get air out of each container there too. Then we take it to the control station where the dog can work in peace.

You can imagine that if the dog has to do it here, between the containers and the noise, it’s more difficult. The odors settle in the cotton balls. The dogs can then recognize these smells, depending on what kind of sniffer dog you use and what he is trained to do.

At the customs station, the air samples are opened for the dog. This allows the dog to check six container samples at once in the shortest possible time. It’s a game-changer for international customs authorities. The dog signals that he seems to have smelled a narcotic. The suspicious container is therefore now also x-rayed

With a mobile x-ray system. The dogs’ check was positive, meaning we need confirmation so it goes to the mobile scan. But here it turned out that the container is negative after all, so the journey can continue now. Night is the most dangerous time at the port. The customs officers don’t take a break.

Hello everyone, as you know several suspicious ships arrived in our sector today. We’re expecting people to return to pick up drugs from the port. This is the zone we are in. We are talking about one of the larger container companies. It is likely that they will try to leave

The port through specific routes. So let’s keep our eyes open and see if we can spot anyone. Camera surveillance is online, people are standing by, basically we’re good to go. Are there any questions? Is there any more info? The three ships have a very high priority.

We have found something there more often than not. That’s the info we have to work with. That’s all we have. Let’s go! Every shipment that brings cocaine into the port attracts smugglers who come to pick up the goods. Tens of thousands of euros are said to be paid for such an operation.

The customs officers try to track them down day and night. Now we go to the Maasvlakte. That’s where all big container ships and the terminals are. An important place for inspections. We will relieve the night shift. The first thing we do is patrol the relevant areas.

We look to see if there are any irregularities and which people are there. Of course, we are available for the control center and keep our eyes and ears open. Today it’s quiet. The customs officers use the time for an exercise. They are rehearsing an arrest. It’s important to always be prepared.

6 / 4 / X / 900 Delta wave. Dardanelle road, direction Malaga road, stop sign Tumawaka road. Trolley 33 We’re listening. Drive straight ahead The customs officers get out to inspect the vehicle. Did you bring your driver’s license? You can take it with you. That way. Good afternoon. Stand here.

What are you doing here at this hour? I was working. Working. Busy? Yeah, yeah, a lot of work. Show your hands! Show your hands. Spread your arms, you are under arrest in accordance with narcotics law. Turn around. On your knees! Colleagues, arrest for narcotics near Malaga Street. Keep the arms spread.

Not everything always goes this smoothly. The customs officers seize the cocaine in the trunk before passing it on to the authorities. In our laboratories, a sample is tested to determine whether it really is cocaine. I’m not allowed to say how often this happens,

But I can say that we’ve already seized 50,000 kilos this year. The search for drugs is like finding a needle in a haystack. In Europe’s largest deep-water port, it’s nearly impossible to find everything despite the most modern methods. It will always be a cat and mouse game:

We find drugs, then we take someone out of circulation, but then other players find new ways to smuggle the drugs into the country again. And that’s how it will always go on. What is changing is the spiral into violence. We are tracking down more and more narcotics,

And this is also intensifying the resistance. The fight is getting more and more brutal as power, along with billions of euros in profits, are at stake. Every year, people are killed in the Netherlands. In summer 2021, a journalist became a victim of the drug mafia. One of the country’s best-known journalists

Has been gunned down in broad daylight in Amsterdam. Peter R. de Vries is fighting for his life. The 64-year-old is considered an expert in the field of organized crime. At the moment we know he is fighting for his life. Crime reporter de Vries dies on the sidelines

Of a murder trial against billionaire drug traffickers. He was a media advisor to a key witness. The murder shows that the cartels in the Netherlands will stop at nothing. The battle for supremacy on the cocaine market does not stop at borders. The drug war seems to have arrived in Europe.

Robin Hofmann is a criminologist and researches cocaine trafficking at Maastricht University. He is shocked by the developments right on his doorstep. I think the Netherlands is the best example at the moment, where you see how a drug conflict can escalate how a drug conflict can become unbelievably brutal.

You see how such a conflict is carried out on the open street. Here, In the Netherlands, we have about 20-30 assassinations per year on the open street, often with automatic weapons. Bystanders are also hit sometimes. You have to say in Germany too that there is the danger

That a similar open conflict will arise at some point. That has not yet taken place such brutalization but it cannot be ruled out that this will be the case sometime. Germany is also increasingly affected by a seemingly relentless desire for cocaine. Kirsten Kappert-Gonther is the health policy spokesperson

For the Green Party in Germany. She sees the fight against cocaine imports as having failed. We have a situation in which this huge flood of cocaine is no longer possible to control through checks. The security authorities, the police, the judiciary, are always behind the curve. Organized crime is extremely resourceful

In finding new trafficking routes, but controls have basically failed. I think the development in recent years with the increasing numbers of cocaine confiscations is very dangerous. I think the best example is the Netherlands, where we see what such an open conflict can look like, in the area of drug-related crime.

And, it has to be said, that’s all based on cocaine. There is a lot of talk about cannabis, but ultimately cocaine has led to this brutalization because the profits are correspondingly large. Critics say the state needs to crack down harder. But commercial drug trafficking already carries a penalty

Of up to 15 years in prison. However with profit margins of more than 100 percent, that obviously doesn’t scare dealers like Jonas and Max. So if we were caught now, we wouldn’t say a word and would wait until our lawyer arrived. He would take care of everything.

Even if they can initiate any kind of proceedings, it rarely comes to a conviction, because it is then negotiated down to personal use. We have good lawyers. Why should my life be worth less than some student? Just because he was encouraged in the past, and brought up by his parents.

Yeah, ok, I didn’t have that. For me there was no push to go to school. I was an outsider in school. Why should I earn less than society’s most accomplished though? It is precisely these high earners who need the drugs, who need some dirt, who need they need something.

In the end they come to people like me because of it. Just because they were born in a better part of society, social class why should I settle for less? I didn’t choose where I was born. Without the lower class, nothing works for the top. We are the foundation.

Cocaine is booming, business is booming, demand is high. Cocaine is becoming the people’s drug, and it still has a good image, despite all the media reports about drug cartels and mafia violence. Addicts like Marie know what a lie this is as it is not always possible to get out.

And when you fall, you fall a long way. Getting off the drug, that’s more than just a struggle, that’s like a war, because it’s just everywhere. And that was so hard. I hope I never forget that, so that it never happens to me again. Marie has been clean for a year now.

She wants her story to serve as a warning against the seduction and dangers of the drug, which seems to flood Germany ever more, unchecked.

Germany is flooded with cocaine. Since 2017, cocaine residue in Berlin’s sewage has doubled. Since the pandemic, sales of cocaine across Germany have rocketed. The addictive potential of the drug is often underestimated and legal prohibitions do little to deter dealers or users.

This documentary sheds light on new international smuggling routes and methods that are causing ever greater problems for law enforcement agencies. One indication of the rising wave of cocaine: although the number of controls in Germany has stagnated, the amount seized has doubled in recent years. In early 2021, customs investigators in the port of Hamburg made the largest cocaine find in Germany and Europe to date: 16 tons. Where does the cocaine come from and who is profiting from its smuggling and sale?

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