A German government report into drug crime  released on Tuesday shows how organized crime groups are increasingly likely to use violence.

Police identified some 284,723 suspects acting as part of criminal organizations in 2020 — and they were increasingly likely to be armed.

Journalist killing reveals danger

Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) President Holger Münch said the data showed a "growing potential for violence in this phenomenon area."

Münch said the fatal shooting of Dutch crime journalist Peter de Vries in Amsterdam earlier this month was evidence of the threat posed by organized international narcotics trafficking.

According to media reports, de Vries may have been caught between the fronts of a cocaine war between rival mafia clans.

The German government's federal drugs commissioner Daniela Ludwig warned that the situation in Germany should not be allowed to go as far as that in the Netherlands.

"We are seeing an increasing number of drug-related crimes in Germany and the EU, which are being carried out ever more brutally, ever more unscrupulously," said Ludwig. 

"We must prevent criminals from behaving in Germany as if their actions had no consequences, as if they were in a lawless space. That is by no means the case here, and we must make that even clearer in the future!"

New Psychoactive Substances

The largest increase in trafficking offenses in 2020 was in New Psychoactive Substances (NPS), the report said. The number increased by 16.2% compared to the previous year.

NPS are designed to replicate the effects of illegal drugs like cannabis, cocaine and ecstasy while remaining legal. They were previously more commonly known as "legal highs."

They include synthetic cannabinoids like "spice," as well as substances that mimic stimulants, tranquilizers, and hallucinogens.

Germany was still being used as a transit country for chemicals in drugs production, the officials said. In 2020, several shipments of amphetamine precursors were seized at German airports.

There were also larger quantities of chemicals for the production of NPS from China, destined for the Netherlands. Production facilities for the manufacture of synthetic drugs have increasingly been identified on Dutch soil.

For cocaine, trafficking offenses increased by 9.6% over the same period, and for so-called crystal, or crystalline methamphetamine, by 7.2%.

'Traditional' drugs still big business

The most trafficked narcotic in 2020 was cannabis with 31,961 recorded cases, followed by amphetamines with 5,581 recorded offenses.

When it came to heroin trafficking, cases known to the police were down 4.9% compared to 2019. However, officials said, there was thought to still be widespread availability and continued demand for the drug in the German market.

Estimates by the United Nations show opium poppy cultivation areas in southwest Asia grew significantly in 2020.

When it came to cocaine, the trend appeared to be ever upward. Total cocaine seizures in 2020 were at least 11 metric tons. In 2018, there were at least 5 metric tons, which had increased to 10 tons in 2019. A record seizure of 16 tons in the Port of Hamburg in February this year indicates that this trend will continue.

Restrictions imposed because of the COVID-19 pandemic were said to have had little impact on narcotics crime. Drugs continue to be widely available, officials say, with increased use of the already well-established online trade.

rc/rt (AFP, dpa, EPD)