Navigated Menu Back Financial Times Financial Times UK 2 Jan 2026 Buttons.Search Options Drug gangs pose grave threat, EU agency warns Outgoing director says South American cocaine is fuelling corruption and violence BARNEY JOPSON — MADRID Additional reporting by Laura Dubois in Brussels and Jude Webber in Dublin Settings Print Share Listen Criminal drug gangs have become a grave threat to European security by flooding the streets with South American cocaine, seeking to corrupt officials and hiring a new wave of paid assassins, according to the EU’s drugs agency. Due to financial crises, terrorism, Covid-19 and the Ukraine war, European policymakers had not paid enough attention to the criminal organisations that had built sprawling drugs businesses, said Alexis Goosdeel, outgoing EU Drugs Agency (EUDA) director. Now, Europe was belatedly waking up to the “hyper-availability” of illegal drugs and to traffickers’ pervasive attempts to ...