Samantha Schmidt of the Washington Post warns that cocaine — not fentanyl — is the drug showing the sharpest global growth. Colombian coca cultivation now exceeds five times the area used during the Pablo Escobar era, and Europe has become a top market alongside the U.S. The trade has shifted from few dominant cartels to many smaller, agile networks that often ship cocaine in legitimate commercial containers, aided by corruption; U.S. naval actions and fentanyl-focused rhetoric risk conflating separate problems.
Cocaine Is Back — Bigger, More Global, and Harder to Stop
A customs officer displays a cocaine bag seized at Brussels Airport in 2025. | Nicolas Tucat/AFP via Getty Images
The Trump administration has warned that fentanyl is so pervasive it amounts to a “weapon of mass destruction.” But Samantha Schmidt, the Washington Post’s Mexico City bureau chief, argues that cocaine — not fentanyl — is the drug showing the most alarming global growth. Her reporting, based on interviews and data, shows a transformed cocaine trade that is larger, more dispersed, and more difficult to disrupt than in the era of the big kingpins.
How Big Is The Global Cocaine Trade?
Year after year the trade is breaking records. The area under coca cultivation in Colombia is now more than five times larger than during the Pablo Escobar era, and both production and international demand are surging. Seizures in Europe have climbed to levels that now rival those in the United States, signaling a truly global market.
“It is a much more globalized business than before, and it works in an entirely new way that makes it much more difficult to combat,”
— Samantha Schmidt, Washington Post (Today, Explained)
What’s Driving The Growth?
Growth is driven by both demand and supply. Europe has emerged as a top destination alongside the United States, while Colombia’s cultivated area and yields per hectare have increased substantially. Experts point to concentrated coca-producing enclaves — highly productive pockets often located near borders and coasts — that make export logistics faster and cheaper.
Political shifts in Colombia after the 2016 peace process and its uneven aftermath have also altered control of territories. Where one or two armed groups once dominated, numerous smaller, more agile criminal networks now operate — both local groups and criminal actors from other regions.
How Do Traffickers Move Large Volumes?
Contrary to dramatic headlines about narco-submarines and speedboats, much of today’s cocaine is concealed in legitimate commercial channels. Legal container ships departing from legal ports carry large volumes, hidden among millions of legal shipments. That scale, combined with corruption — bribery of port workers, police, and judicial actors — greatly complicates interdiction.
How Is Law Enforcement Responding?
Responses have evolved. Recent U.S. policy emphasized dismantling leadership structures; more recently, the administration increased naval deployments in the Caribbean and Latin American waters and has struck vessels it alleges are trafficking drugs. Officials often frame the threat with strong rhetoric about fentanyl and “narco-terrorism,” but Schmidt notes that maritime trafficking in the region is predominantly cocaine — a distinction that matters for strategy and public understanding.
What This Means
The modern cocaine trade looks less like the 1980s portrait of a single, towering boss and more like a decentralized, globalized industry: diversified markets, sophisticated logistics, and small nimble networks exploiting legal commerce and corrupt institutions. Effective responses will require international cooperation, better port and cargo inspection systems, anti-corruption efforts, and targeted public-health strategies that distinguish between different drugs and trafficking methods.
Reporting note: This article summarizes an edited excerpt of Samantha Schmidt’s interview on the podcast Today, Explained.
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