Global cooperation needs to be ramped up in order to combat drug trafficking, Germany's Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in comments published on Monday.

"The harbors in the Netherlands, Belgium and France are becoming even more strained by international drug smuggling," Faeser told Germany's Funke media group of newspapers. 

Drug traffickers were also targeting Germany's main port in Hamburg, she added.

Faeser said drug cartels were responsible for "an unbelieve spiral of violence" that included journalists and prosecutors being threatened or even murdered, and torture chambers being set up in Europe.

"Therefore, I want tougher and more internationally coordinated actions against cocaine and drug trades," Faeser said.

Cooperation with South America

Faeser said she would soon travel to South America "so that our police forces can work together directly and so that we can ensure that mass quantities of drugs do not reach Europe."

"Brazil, in particular, is a key partner for us in the fight against drug smuggling. I would also like to cooperate with Peru and Colombia," Faeser said.

The interior pointed to a number of preventative measures she wants to see strengthened going forward.

These include identifying what companies or front companies are involved in drug trafficking, and having police inform legitimate shipping companies about attempted smuggling by cartels.

Faeser also said "we want to recognize where pressure is being exerted on port workers."

Workers should have contact points they can turn to when criminals put pressure on them, and they should be paid fair wages so that money from cartels is not attractive to them in the first place, she said.

zc/wmr (dpa, AFP)