Galicia seizes 9.3 tonnes of cocaine in 2025: 386% more than previous year
Galicia accounted for 12.1% of all cocaine seized in Spain in 2025, with A Coruña accumulating nearly 70% of regional seizures.
Galicia, epicentre of drug trafficking: record figures and a problem that goes beyond drug shipments
According to laregion.es, 9.3 tonnes of cocaine were intercepted in Galicia during 2025, a 386% increase compared to the previous year. The autonomous community accounted for 12.1% of all cocaine seized in Spain, precisely in a year when seizures fell considerably across the country as a whole. A Coruña accumulated nearly 70% of Galician seizures. The figures confirm that Galicia maintains a prominent position in international drug trafficking routes.
The region is well aware of the consequences of this phenomenon. There was a time, not so long ago, when certain areas were associated with major drug shipments, with criminal organisations capable of moving enormous quantities of money and, above all, with a generation that suffered the devastating effects of heroin. Over the years, the substances changed, the methods changed and the profile of users changed, but the problem never disappeared.
Beyond containers and drug smuggling boats
Behind those tonnes there is something more than police operations and criminal networks. For someone to sell, there has to be someone willing to buy, and the drugs that get past controls end up reaching cities, leisure venues and, all too often, increasingly young people.
Psychiatrist and writer Natanael Antonio warned recently, in an interview published by laregion.es, about how cannabis has become for many young people a kind of refuge against anxiety, frustration or lack of prospects. That supposed refuge, he noted, can end up becoming a trap. Added to this is the expansion of new synthetic substances, some with particularly high prevalence among the young population.
Repeat offending and drug addiction: a difficult circle to break
Those who work in the field of public security point out that behind many repeat offenders there is drug addiction. People who resort to theft, robbery or other criminal activities to get the money needed for the next dose. The police arrest them, the courts act and, all too often, shortly afterwards the cycle begins again.
This raises a question that goes beyond police and judicial response: whether certain problems can be addressed exclusively through repressive action. The police need sufficient resources, adequate staffing and the necessary backing to exercise the authority that society entrusts to them. But there is a boundary beyond which the response also has to be health-related, educational and social.
There are people with serious addictions and disorders associated with drug use who need specialised treatment and measures lengthy enough to break the cycle of use, crime and detention. It is not a matter of justifying crime by addiction, but of trying to prevent it from happening again. Arresting someone repeatedly for offences related to their dependency solves the immediate problem, but hardly the one that lies at its root.
Prevention before repression
Prevention should begin long before the first use occurs. In families and schools, explaining the consequences of drug use; through health services, detecting addictions at an early stage; through social services, addressing situations of exclusion; and through the Police and Security Forces, maintaining pressure on those for whom trafficking is their business.
It is also necessary to prevent certain forms of consumption becoming socially normalised, particularly among the young. The perception that some drugs have hardly any consequences can be the first step towards much more serious problems.
A police success that reveals a colossal business
The 9.3 tonnes of cocaine seized represent a notable result of police work, but at the same time reveal the scale of trafficking that continues to exist. Every kilogram removed from the streets is a success, but every major drug shipment discovered reminds us of the enormous business that operates in the shadows.
Fighting it requires police officers, judges, resources and regulatory changes that allow the economic muscle of traffickers to be attacked. But shock action is not sufficient by itself. Education, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation are essential parts of any response that aims to be lasting.
It would be a mistake to think that the worst years of Galician drug trafficking definitively belong to the past. The figures show that drugs continue to arrive in extraordinary quantities. Behind them are people, families and, all too often, entire lives destroyed.
Source: Google News ES — Crime (es)