Beer and tobacco apparently have some rising competition for the drug of choice in Germany as Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) officials are reporting that cocaine imports into the country have drastically spiked in 2016 with a total of 576 metric tons being confiscated.
The record number only takes into account findings of 50 kilograms or more, and obviously does not include the shipments that made it past authorities.
This 2016 rise didn’t catch authorities off guard though as the trend had already been set in recent years. 335 metric tons were seized in 2014, followed by a large spike in 2015 with 416 metric tons reported.
Cocaine use in Germany has typically been low on the list of drug use, partially due to the difficulty in which it is shipped into the country, but with such drastic spikes in recent years, there are concerns over the growing popularity.
