The European struggle against drug trafficking

Abstract

The drug trafficking issue will be explored in this dissertation focusing on the European drug market, both at the EU and member state level. The history of drug trafficking in Europe demonstrates that this is a recent problem, which the countries of Europe have to deal with. Drug trafficking is also a problem that has developed rapidly in Europe, but also rapid was the response of the Union in this struggle. A closer look is given to countries such as Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and the UK as they are key players in the drug trafficking field. The developments of successful strategies used by the EU, especially to reduce supply and demand of illegal drugs will be discussed. This dissertation points out the effort done by the EU countries, which together are fighting the drug problem, through comparison of informative data and coordination between national law enforcement agencies. Malta is used as an example to show the relationship between an EU applicant country and the EU member states regarding drug trafficking, aiming to illustrate Malta's role in the European fight against drug trafficking. There is a lack of literature about this subject as mostly written work about drug trafficking is based on reports, so the aim of this dissertation is to give the reader an overview of the evolvement up to date and the basic issues of the drug trafficking problem in Europe.