Drug trafficking and organised crime are growing concerns in France and across Europe. The illicit drug market in mainland France tripled between 2010 and 2023, and the cocaine market now exceeds that of cannabis in value, according to the French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT). In a decade, cocaine seizures have quadrupled in Europe, according to the European Union Drug Agency (EUDA). Money laundering, corruption and violence destabilise states and societies confronted with drug trafficking (see, for example, the World Drug Report 2025).

The work of our researchers provides scientific, comparative and empirically based insights into the dynamics of drug trafficking and organised crime in France and Europe.

How cocaine reaches France

Gabriel Feltran, CNRS Research Professor in Sociology at the CEE, studies the value chain of cocaine trafficking to mainland France. In this context, he has conducted investigations in the ports of Le Havre and Rotterdam (projet financed by the MILDECA), as well as in French Guiana, in partnership with the Direction des services pénitentiaires d'outre-mer (DSPOM).

One initial finding, entitled « Les factions criminelles brésiliennes en Guyane » (Brazilian criminal factions in French Guiana), provides insight into the dynamics of drug trafficking in French Guiana, at the crossroads of local violence and global changes in the drug market.

Two key findings:

• The visible violence in French Guiana (local conflicts between Brazilian and Guianese factions) masks a much larger, transnational, lucrative and structured criminal economy.
• The wholesale cocaine market increasingly operates as a platform economy, connecting producers, transporters and dealers in a decentralised and rapidly growing model. Gabriel Feltran just published an academic article describing the platformisation of global cocaine logistics (European Journal of Sociology, December 2025).

Gabriel Feltran discussed the findings of this field study in a video interview.

Drug trafficking, criminal networks and violence

Paolo Campana, Professor of Criminology at the University of Cambridge and Associate Researcher at the CEE, has done extensive work on modelling criminal networks, particularly using data from police services in the United Kingdom (London, Liverpool, Cambridge, etc.). 

With regard to the spread of organised crime, Campana has shown that the existence of local drug markets makes neighbourhoods attractive for other types of organised criminal activity, and that criminal groups appear to target areas with socio-demographic characteristics similar to their home territory when expanding their activities.

Additionally, drug trafficking appears to be a determining factor in cooperation between organised crime groups, unlike other types of criminal activity (theft, fraud, burglaries, robberies). Connections that, in turn, create stronger and more entrenched groups. Furthermore, the most connected groups are also the most violent, with violence typically emerging when cooperation breaks down.

The triad of production, trade and governance: a new framework for analysing organised crime

For decades, organised crime has been approached as the work of hierarchical and long-lasting groups. However, according to research by Federico Varese, Professor of Sociology at the CEE, this represents an insufficient and ineffective means of combatting it.

In his CrimGov project, funded by a prestigious European Research Council (ERC) grant, Varese views organised crime as a set of services: production (of illegal goods), trade (movement of goods and people) and governance (control of markets and territories).

This analytical framework was also included in the latest World Drug Report published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Such a distinction is crucial in the fight against organised crime, including drug trafficking, as policies that focus solely on criminal groups rather than their activities risk missing the mark – each type of criminal activity demands tailored tools and strategies to address it effectively.

• Production requires industrial and environmental regulation, the tracing of precursors and financial targeting.
• Trade requires customs cooperation, maritime surveillance and targeted sanctions against facilitators.
• Governance calls for localised police intelligence, as well as social action and urban renewal – criminal governance is more likely to emerge when public services are inaccessible or of poor quality. 

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