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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Words by Mark Townsend. Data and visuals by Ana Lucía González Paz, Lucy Swan and Harvey Symons

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

Four boys stand on a hill silhouetted against a dark sky
Refugee boys in the north African Spanish enclave of Melilla. Photograph: Alexander Koerner/Getty Images

Hundreds of unaccompanied child migrants across Europe are being forced to work as soldiers for increasingly powerful drug cartels to meet the continent’s soaring appetite for cocaine, a Guardian investigation has found.

EU police forces have warned of industrial-scale exploitation of African children by cocaine networks operating in western Europe in cities including Paris and Brussels as they seek to expand Europe’s £10bn cocaine market.

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