Global News Post #4 – Germany

Wie das Kokain nach Berlin kommt – Where the Cocaine in Berlin Comes From

According to a new analysis done by the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA), a German Federal Criminal Police unit located in Berlin, the use of cocaine and other narcotics has not only increased in the city of Berlin, it has found new ways of transport. This article written by Marie Rövekamp focuses on the hidden pathways drug dealers use in order to sneak drugs into Berlin, Germany.

Berlin newspaper Der Tagesspiegel explains that although the police force in Germany has done a good job at catching criminals in the streets, even bigger problems in how drugs get to Berlin have yet to be solved. The main transaction for cocaine in Berlin and country-wide occurs with the DarkWeb. The DarkWeb allows users to obtain anonymous IP addresses that cannot be traced. Since there is no face to the name, those looking to score can easily purchase their goods. However, since police have a strong grip on the streets and city, dealers have come up with more intuitive ways at bringing drugs in.

Smuggling drugs into Berlin comes in many forms. The most popular form has been aptly named the “Coke-Taxi”. This is when a cab driver or dealer dressed as such driver around under the guise of a taxi only to be both dealing and transporting narcotics. Another way has been through body transport through which dealers or workers hide drugs inside their bodies in when traveling through checkpoints in order to conceal their product.

The BKA have been trying to find a way to figure out the patterns of cocaine sales. This is a difficult solution to find, especially since “24,000 lines of coke are exchange in Berlin a day” (translated from direct quote: “Berliner ziehen sich im Schnitt 24.000 Lines am Tag rein”. Since the DarkWeb encrypts the identity of dealers and buyers, it is up to police to simply catch a deal in the act and find information from there. This process will take time and diligence since their is no information to go off of in the first place.

This article takes a non-biased approach even when taking into account the pro-drug political view. The evidence being used was statistical information regarding the predicted amount of drugs influxed into Berlin as well as opinions and anecdotes from police on what to do with them. This article takes no point of view and more over analyzes the event of drug usage and transportation within Berlin. Some information may have been misconstrued since it was written in German and was at the fault of my translation.

 

Works Cited:

 

Rövekamp, Marie. “Wie Das Kokain Nach Berlin Kommt.” Der Schneesturm, 4 Mar. 2018, www.tagesspiegel.de/wirtschaft/der-schneesturm-wie-das-kokain-nach-berlin-kommt/21029078.html.

 

“DPA.” Russian ‘mastermind’ in Argentina cocaine plot arrested in Berlin. AFP, Version 1, The Local de, 2 March, 2018, 11:03 PM, https://www.thelocal.de/20180302/russian-mastermind-in-argentina-cocaine-plot-arrested-in-berlin

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