ECR MEP Assita Kanko has called for more international cooperation against drug trafficking, as well as coordinated diplomatic pressure on state complicity in the face of rising drug-related crime.

Speaking in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Kanko who is ECR coordinator in the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, said: “If the criminals have faster mobility and technology, it is because we are not innovative enough; because we have not sufficiently funded and improved police and judicial cooperation. If the criminals have liquidity, it’s because we are not sufficiently tackling the problem of money laundering.”

Kanko continued: “As a society, we also need a change in our mindset. Drugs and terrorism walk hand in hand. Drugs have nothing glamorous. Crime is its only face.”

Kanko also called for EU-wide concrete efforts for better container scanning and bundling of common security procedures, since drugs mainly reach Europe by ship from South America.

She explained that the range of crimes extends from money laundering to physical threats and the destruction of neighbourhoods. The presence of drugs into schools endangers young people, while politicians and journalists face intimidation from offending actors. Killings are also a symptom of this illicit industry.

She recalled the death of Dutch journalist Peter R De Vries, who was shot in the streets of Amsterdam three years ago, and pointed out that in Brussels, “liquidations related to drugs occur regularly”. She also recalled the innocent 11-year-old girl that was killed in a drug-related shooting in Antwerp in 2023.

“There is no such thing as soft drugs. There are only bloody drugs. If we don’t stop this, we won’t be safe”, Kanko concluded.