The Intelligence from The Economist

Cocaine and able: drug runners innovate

41 snips
Oct 22, 2025
Kinley Salmon, a Latin America correspondent, reveals the innovative tactics transforming the cocaine trade, discussing the shift to outsourced networks and new smuggling methods like narco-submersibles. He argues that U.S. actions won't significantly disrupt this resilient industry and suggests legalization might reduce profits. Meanwhile, Don Wineland, China business and finance editor, sheds light on the Liu Zhi detention system, highlighting the rising number of disappearing businesspeople and its chilling effects on China's private sector.
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INSIGHT

Cocaine Trade Has Become A Global Supply Chain

  • The global cocaine trade has become a specialised, outsourced network resembling a supply chain rather than a single cartel.
  • That specialization makes the market more resilient, innovative, and harder for enforcement to disrupt.
INSIGHT

Cocaine Demand And Markets Are Surging

  • Cocaine production, seizures and consumption are at record highs and the market size rivals major legal industries.
  • Europe has surged into possibly the largest cocaine market, pushing global demand higher.
ANECDOTE

Coca Farming Moves Closer To Ports

  • Coca cultivation has spread beyond the Andes into Central America and Amazon regions near export routes.
  • Peru now ships coca base to Europe where labs convert it into cocaine, a form of narco nearshoring.
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