Five Big Moves Governments Are Using to Crush the Cocaine Trade

The global cocaine trade is resilient, profitable and constantly adapting, but so are the efforts to stop it. From Andean farms to European ports, governments are trying to squeeze the trade at every stage of the chain. Here are five of the biggest tactics they use – and why none of them, on their own, are enough.

1. Hitting Traffickers at Sea

One of the most visible tactics is the push to intercept large shipments at sea. Navies and coast guards from the UK, US and Europe run joint patrols across the Atlantic and Caribbean, targeting multi-tonne consignments hidden in cargo ships, fishing boats and so-called “go-fast” vessels. Intelligence-led operations focus on high-risk routes and suspicious movements rather than random checks.

The logic is simple: stop the biggest loads before they land, and you starve major trafficking groups of product and profit. But the sea is vast, and traffickers respond by fragmenting loads, changing routes and using decoys to keep enforcement guessing.

2. Sharing Intelligence, Fast

Cartels rely on secrecy and gaps in communication between agencies and countries. To close those gaps, governments have invested heavily in intelligence-sharing hubs that connect law-enforcement bodies across continents. Europol, Interpol and regional taskforces now move information in near real time: who is moving money, which containers look suspicious, which routes are heating up.

Smarter intelligence means smarter hits. Instead of isolated operations, you get coordinated strikes on networks and assets in multiple countries at once. The challenge is keeping up with encryption, burner phones, corrupt insiders and the simple fact that traffickers only need one weak link to exploit.

3. Striking at the Source

At the production end, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia work with international partners to reduce the supply of coca and disrupt labs. This includes crop monitoring by satellite, manual eradication, aerial spraying in some periods, and raids on jungle laboratories.

Alongside enforcement, there are development programmes aimed at breaking the economic logic of coca cultivation: offering farmers alternative crops, better infrastructure and access to markets. On paper, this is a “carrot and stick” approach – stop the cocaine at source by making legal livelihoods viable. In reality, it’s a constant struggle against poverty, local power structures and the simple fact that coca still pays more, faster, than most alternatives.

4. Locking Down Ports

Container ports are the arteries of the global cocaine trade. Traffickers hide drugs in legitimate shipments, exploit corrupt insiders and bet on the odds that only a small fraction of containers will ever be checked. In response, governments have tried to turn ports from gateways into choke points.

Major hubs like Rotterdam, Antwerp and key UK ports now use a mix of risk-profiling software, advanced scanning, targeted inspections and joint customs–police teams. They look not just for suspicious cargo, but for patterns: repeat companies, routes, port workers and hauliers that connect seizures. Every big seizure sends a message, but it also pushes traffickers to find new ports, new cover loads and new collaborators.

5. Following the Money

Drugs are just the visible tip of the trade. The real power lies in the money. Increasingly, governments are trying to hit traffickers where it hurts most by focusing on profits rather than just product. Financial crime units trace cash flows, shell companies, property purchases and luxury goods that don’t match declared income.

Banks, accountants and lawyers are under greater pressure to report suspicious activity, and there is growing use of asset-freezing and confiscation powers. The aim is to make laundering harder, slower and riskier – to turn the billions the trade generates into a liability rather than a reward.

The Bottom Line

From the outside, these five moves can look like a simple story of good versus bad, enforcement versus crime. Up close, the picture is more complicated. Every seizure, raid and arrest has ripples: new routes open, new players step in, and violence can spike as power balances shift.

In Crossing the Line, these global pressures are the backdrop to local lives in Liverpool – from street-level dealers to gang bosses and corrupt officials. The trade is big, but its impact is always personal. The question for governments is not just how to stop the cocaine, but how to change the conditions that make the trade so attractive in the first place.