Most of the world’s illegal drugs are produced in a few key regions—like Afghanistan for opium and heroin, the Andes in South America for cocaine, and Mexico and parts of Asia for synthetic drugs—then trafficked globally through organized smuggling routes. These flows often run through transit corridors in Latin America, West Africa, and the Balkans before reaching consumer markets in North America, Europe, and elsewhere.

Big picture: where drugs originate

  • Heroin and other opiates
    • Since the mid‑2000s, the majority of the world’s opium used for heroin has come from Afghanistan, at points supplying over 90% of opiates on the global market.
* Historically, regions called the **Golden Crescent** (Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan) and **Golden Triangle** (Myanmar, Laos, Thailand) have been major opium and heroin production zones feeding Europe, Asia, and Australia.
  • Cocaine
    • Cocaine is primarily produced from coca plants grown in the Andean countries of Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia.
* For the U.S. market, most cocaine originates in Colombia and then moves through Central America and Mexico; about 90% of cocaine seized in the U.S. in 2015 was of Colombian origin.

How drugs reach the United States

  • Heroin into the U.S.
    • U.S. officials estimate roughly 90–94% of heroin consumed in the United States comes from Mexico , with a smaller share (about 4–6%) from Asia and around 2% from Colombia.
* Central America is more important as a corridor for cocaine than for heroin headed to the U.S., so stopping Central American routes would barely touch the U.S. opioid supply.
  • Cocaine into the U.S.
    • Most cocaine destined for the U.S. is shipped from the Andes and routed through the Mexico/Central America corridor —by land, sea, and air—before crossing the southwest U.S. border.
* Mexican cartels maintain distribution networks in hundreds of U.S. cities, supplying local gangs that handle street‑level sales.

Synthetic drugs and new trends

  • Methamphetamine and synthetic stimulants
    • Large‑scale meth production has shifted heavily to Mexico , where cartels use industrial‑scale labs and imported chemical precursors, then smuggle finished product into the U.S. and beyond.
* Some precursor chemicals and know‑how have historically come from or through countries in East and Southeast Asia, but production for the North American market is now dominated by Mexican organizations.
  • Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids
    • A significant amount of illicit fentanyl affecting the U.S. is synthesized in Mexico , often using precursor chemicals sourced from China.
* Fentanyl is far more potent than heroin, which makes smuggling easier (small packages, huge effect) and overdoses more likely once it is mixed into heroin, counterfeit pills, or other street drugs.

Global trafficking routes

  • Africa as a transit hub
    • West African countries such as Guinea‑Bissau, Nigeria, and Ghana have become important transit points for South American cocaine headed to Europe, and to a lesser extent North America.
* Eastern and southern African routes are increasingly used to move Afghan heroin toward Europe and beyond, with local spillover in use and corruption.
  • Western Balkans and Europe
    • Organized crime groups from the Western Balkans (e.g., Albania, Serbia, Montenegro) have become key players in trafficking heroin and cocaine into and across Europe.
* These networks link producers in Afghanistan and South America to consumer markets across the EU using maritime routes, overland Balkan corridors, and major European ports.

Why this matters for “where drugs come from”

  • Production is concentrated, but trafficking is global , meaning:
    • A bag of heroin in Europe may trace back to Afghan fields; a line of cocaine in the U.S. likely originates in Colombia but passed through multiple countries and criminal groups.
* Synthetic drugs like fentanyl can start as precursor shipments from China, be turned into finished product in Mexico, then reach users through U.S. distribution networks.
  • From a policy and safety standpoint, this means:
    • Tackling demand and harm (treatment, education, overdose prevention) in consumer countries is as critical as going after cartels or crops abroad.
* Changes in enforcement or crop conditions in one region often just push production or trafficking routes somewhere else, rather than eliminating supply altogether.

TL;DR: Most illegal drugs do not originate locally; they come from a small number of major producing regions (Afghanistan for opiates, the Andes for cocaine, Mexico and parts of Asia for synthetics) and move through complex international trafficking networks before reaching users.