German police have seized more than 7 metric tons of cocaine this year, according to federal police. Germany had been inundated by a "flood of cocaine" from South America, said a senior law enforcement agent.
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The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) said it confiscated record-breaking amounts of cocaine this year, speaking of "exorbitantly high" figures, German broadcaster NDR has reported.
German law enforcement agents managed to seize more than 7 metric tons (7.7 US tons) of cocaine in part due to increased output made possible by advances in production efficiency. As a result, cocaine seizures worldwide are set to surpass last year's 582 metric tons (641.5 US tons), the BKA said.
"Dealers are following the motto: 'Supply creates demand,'" Hoppe said. "The supply in South America has increased, which means we have a flood of cocaine."
However, the senior law enforcement agent noted that it was too early to tell if cocaine will transform into an "everyday drug."
When the drug eventually makes it to an entry point such as Hamburg's port, criminal organizations bribe employees to ensure the shipments are unloaded without trouble, the BKA said.
Criminal organizations based in Italy and the Balkans have dominated Europe's drugs markets, representing a major challenge to counter-narcotics operations, the BKA said.
The criminal organizations' trafficking networks have proven difficult to break up due to their cell-like structure, it added.
Germany, the original drug lab
Many recreational drugs cooked in hidden labs around the world today were origianlly desigend by German chemists, the military and German firms.
Off to war
The Nazis sent doped-up soldiers to the front in Poland in 1939 and to France the following year. During the invasion of France, a whopping 35 million tablets of the methamphetamine Pervitin were distributed to soldiers, who named the miracle pill "Panzerschokolade" ("tank chocolate"). It wasn't just the Germans, however: the Allies gave their troops drugs, too.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa-Bildarchiv
Alert and fearless
A Japanese chemist created a liquid version of what was to become the German Wehrmacht's miracle pill. The Berlin-based drug firm Temmler refined the drug and took out a patent in 1937. A year later, Pervitin was sold over the counter. It left people alert, fearless, and without need of food or drink. Pervitin is still on the market - illegally - and under a different name: Crystal Meth.
His own best customer?
Historians disagree over whether the Führer himself was addicted to Pervitin. Files kept by Hitler's personal doctor, Theo Morell, show a scribbled "x" in reference to a cocktail of medication he was given on any given day - but it isn't exactly clear what it refers to. We do know, though, that Hitler was on a mix of powerful drugs.
German chemists' inventive talents go back even further than the Nazi era, however. "No cough thanks to heroin," was the ad slogan for a cough medicine produced by the German drug company Bayer in the late 19th century. Heroin was prescribed to patients - adults and children - suffering from epilepsy, asthma, schizophrenia and heart disease. Any side effects? Bayer listed constipation.
Creative Chemists
Felix Hoffmann is perhaps best known for inventing Aspirin. But that's not all. He also developed heroin while experimenting with acetic acid. Hoffmann combined the acid with morphine, an extract from the poppy pod. Heroin was legal in Germany until 1971 when it was finally outlawed.
Cocaine for opthamologists
In 1862, the Darmstadt-based firm Merck started producing large amounts of cocaine as a local anesthetic for ophthalmologists. German chemist, Albert Niemann, had previously isolated an alkaloid he named cocaine from South American coca leaves. Niemann died shortly after discovering cocaine - of lung problems.
Image: Merck Corporate History
Euphoria and vitality
Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist and the "father of psychoanalysis," consumed cocaine for scientific purposes. In his Cocaine Papers study, Freud described the drug as harmless. He observed "euphoria, more vitality and [a] capacity for work." His enthusiasm waned, however, after a friend died of an overdose. At that time doctors prescribed cocaine for headaches and stomach problems.
Image: Hans Casparius/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
MDMA patent
American chemist, Alexander Shulgin, is widely believed to have invented the party drug ecstasy. But in reality, he rediscovered the compound. The German firm Merck had originally developed and filed for a patent for a colorless oil under the name 3,4-Methylendioxymethamphetamine - MDMA - in 1912. Back then, chemists thought the substance had no commercial value.
Image: picture-alliance/epa/Barbara Walton
The past casts a long shadow
These German chemists' inventions are still having an impact today. According to estimates by the United Nations about 190,000 people died worldwide in 2013 because of illegal drug consumption. However, alcohol, a legal drug, is responsible for far more deaths. The WHO says 5.9 percent of all deaths in 2012 were due to alcohol consumption - that's 3.3 million people.