Basel’s Working Paper 58 examines how corruption facilitates cocaine trafficking through the Port of Rotterdam, highlighting systemic risks and the need for a coordinated anti-crime approach

The paper finds that corruption—through collusion, coercion, and infiltration of customs—strategically enables cocaine trafficking by circumventing key control points in the port of Rotterdam. It further concludes that stronger enforcement measures unintentionally heighten reliance on corruption, driving traffickers to continually adapt their methods, routes, and concealment strategies…