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Bloodlines

A series looking at how Europe's cocaine addiction is fuelling human rights abuses down the supply chain

11 August 2024

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  • An Afghan man in the doorway of a mud-walled building watches a British soldier walk past a poppy field holding a rifle

    Was the shooting of a nine-year-old girl in Hackney linked to a Europe-wide battle between rival drug gangs?

    Fatal clashes between Turkish criminals in the heroin trade are spreading in Europe, an Observer investigation reveals

14 June 2024

  • westafrica trail

    A cycle of debt, sex work and cocaine: the women in west Africa caught in Europe’s drugs trail

    As white powder bound for European ports floods the city of Agadez in Niger, female migrants are the most common victims in a growing addiction crisis

13 June 2024

  • A young girl sobs among a crowd of mourners, some holding memorial photographs

    ‘The gangs never used to kill children, now they do’: how cocaine created Argentina’s first narcocity

    The river port of Rosario lies on the route between cocaine-producing Peru and Bolivia and lucrative markets in Europe. The result is terrifying violence and addiction

12 June 2024

  • Pile of cocaine with images from Ecuador in the background

    ‘The cocaine superhighway’: how death and destruction mark drug’s path from South America to Europe

  • Map with a swirl of cocaine resembling a storm over Ireland

    ‘We’re seeing firearms, arson, attacks on homes’: the families in the eye of Ireland’s cocaine storm

11 June 2024

  • trail image 4

    Beaten and tortured: the north African children paying a bloody price for Europe’s insatiable appetite for cocaine

    For serious drug gangs, thousands of children coming from Morocco and Algeria offer an unlimited pool of cheap, disposable street sellers
  • Four boys stand on a hill silhouetted against a dark sky

    Revealed: drug cartels force migrant children to work as foot soldiers in Europe’s booming cocaine trade

    Exclusive: Guardian investigation shows white powder trail linking hundreds of vulnerable African minors with ruthless gangs
  • An illustration featuring European landmarks such as Big Ben, the Colosseum, the Eiffel Tower and the Leaning Tower of Pisa

    How big is Europe’s cocaine problem – and what is the human cost?

    Consumption of the drug has rapidly increased across the continent in recent years, leaving a trail of devastation
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