German authorities have warned that cocaine trafficking and organized crime are posing growing threats to public health, the economy and the state. Presenting the police’s annual organized-crime report, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said Germany was experiencing a “flood of cocaine,” alongside a record number of drug-related deaths and the exploitation of children by criminal groups.
The Federal Criminal Police Office said 10 tons of cocaine were seized last year, with two-thirds of the amount confiscated in German ports. Drug-related deaths reached 2,150, an increase of 13 from 2024. About 83% of those who died were men, with an average age of 41, according to the material presented by the authorities.
Holger Münch, president of the Federal Criminal Police Office, said drug profits were frequently invested in real estate and moved into the legitimate economy. Investigators examined 195 money-laundering cases in 2025 involving almost €1.4 billion, he said. Münch warned that criminal networks use financial resources to bribe people, exert influence and contribute to wider social destabilization through money laundering, corruption and violence.
Officials also described changes in how drugs and criminal services are offered. Drug dealers increasingly operate through phones and online platforms rather than street locations. Germany’s drug and addiction commissioner, Hendrik Streeck, said so-called cocaine taxis could be ordered through QR codes, while criminal groups were recruiting minors on social-media and gaming platforms.
Streeck linked cocaine consumption to violence, exploitation and environmental damage in producing regions. He said forests were being cleared for cultivation and that chemicals used to process cocaine could contaminate soil and water. He called for zero tolerance toward those profiting from addiction, combined with preventive measures and public education about the drug’s effects.
Münch said the changing structure of organized crime was challenging national and international law enforcement. He cited the dark web as enabling people to buy criminal services and noted investigators’ suspicions that state actors were becoming involved in opaque criminal activity as part of “hybrid threats.” Police said around 600 organized-crime investigations were conducted in Germany in 2025, broadly in line with the average of the previous five years. A highlighted enforcement success was the shutdown of the Archetyp darknet marketplace, whose administrator was arrested in June 2025.