A dive ahead: the adaptive dimensions between cocaine smuggling and policing in major Brazilian ports

Gabriel Patriarca and Sergio Adorno

Global Crime, 2025, vol. 26, issue 3-4, 217-236

Abstract: Ports have been considered key settings for the adaptation of cocaine smuggling to policing, but few studies have analysed their mutual adaptations, focussing more on European ports of destination than on South American ports of origin. Based on a study in the ports of Santos and Paranaguá in Brazil, this article addresses a modus operandi of smuggling in which the drugs are attached to or inserted into the hulls of ships. The aim is to explore the dimensions around which the mutual adaptations between smuggling and policing revolve. Following an analysis of interviews, closed and open access documents and complementary data, we identify awareness, procedures, technologies, know-how and connections as adaptive dimensions, and point out ways in which both smuggling and policing adapt to the port context, and occasionally reverse their roles.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/17440572.2025.2538073

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