Editing Cross-border Drug Trafficking Cases Nearly Doubled In Four Years...

<br>THE HAGUE, April 19 (Reuters) - The number of cross-border drug trafficking cases referred to the European agency for prosecutorial cooperation nearly doubled in four years to 562 in 2020, partly driven by a huge increase in the production of synthetic drugs, the agency said.<br> <br>In a report published on Monday Eurojust said drug trafficking in the European Union alone has an estimated value of 30 billion euros ($36 billion) annually.<br><br>The rapid rise of production of synthetic drugs such as methamphetamines and their sale via online [https://mydarkmarket.com Dark web market urls] places on the [https://mydarkmarket.com darknet market] poses a big challenge to prosecutors across the European Union.<br> <br>"By rapidly changing the composition of chemicals used for these drugs ... or creating new substances, producers try to exploit legal gaps and avoid prosecution," Eurojust said in a statement.<br> <br>According to the report by the European prosecutor's body, the total number of cases involving cross-border drug trafficking nearly doubled to 562 from 279 between 2016 and 2020.<br><br>Synthetic and other new drugs made up almost one-third of them.<br> <br>The Eurojust report said producers of new psychoactive drugs often don't work in old-fashion hierarchical drug trafficking networks and sale and  darkmarket link distribution are done online.<br> <br>"This phenomenon has increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with organised crime groups adapting quickly to an online environment, using secured communication channels, crypto-phones, cryptocurrencies and [https://mydarkmarket.com darknet market] markets," Eurojust said.<br> <br>Likewise consumers of the drugs are also shifting to the [https://mydarkmarket.com darknet market], paying online and receiving the drugs in the mail,  darkmarket list it added, making prosecution complicated.<br> <br>($1 = 0.8317 euros) (Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)<br>