Article Dans Une Revue Archives Européennes de Sociologie / European Journal of Sociology Année : 2025

A Criminal Platform for the Cocaine Trade: Governance Mechanisms Changing the Balance of Power in a Transcontinental Value Chain

Résumé

Abstract Since 2016, global police data have revealed a significant rise in cocaine production in Latin America, as well as an improvement in the drug’s purity, together with more frequent seizures in Europe and sharply increased consumption in Asia, Africa, and Oceania. This article argues that these changes have been driven by an understudied platformization of global cocaine logistics. This article examines the governance mechanisms of this changing trade. It consists of three parts. The first examines the governance structure of an emerging criminal player, the Primeiro Comando da Capital (“First Capital Command” (PCC)). The second introduces the Agência, a PCC regulatory body that manages drug trafficking via a platform model. The third and final part investigates criminal efforts to establish a global, multimodal logistics system; it demonstrates how the cocaine market has become integrated into formal economies and why it challenges existing power structures. The analysis draws on extensive fieldwork conducted between 2018 and 2025, including interviews with former drug traffickers, law enforcement officers, and customs officials, as well as quantitative and documentary data on seizures, purity, and violence related to cocaine trafficking.

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Dates et versions

hal-05450670 , version 1 (09-01-2026)

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Gabriel Feltran. A Criminal Platform for the Cocaine Trade: Governance Mechanisms Changing the Balance of Power in a Transcontinental Value Chain. Archives Européennes de Sociologie / European Journal of Sociology, 2025, 66 (2), pp.169-197. ⟨10.1017/S0003975625100064⟩. ⟨hal-05450670⟩
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