Drug trafficking in Europe accounts for 24 billion

the hague - Drug trafficking is the largest illegal market in the EU. Criminals annually raise more than 24 billion euros to trade, according to a report published by the European police organization Europol on Wednesday.

More than a third of criminal gangs in the European Union trade and produce drugs. Marijuana and cocaine are still the most traded drugs.

According to the researchers, the substances quickly change their composition within the trade in synthetic drugs. Over the past five years, 620 new compounds have been registered. Drugs with the opiate fentanyl as a component are on the rise. The dangerous substance, many times stronger than morphine, took the lives of 60 people in Britain this year.

Fentanyl is used in the healthcare sector as a painkiller. The American artist Prince died last year in April of an overdose of fentanyl.