The ports and Rotterdam and Antwerp are considered to be the largest import locks for cocaine in Europe. Corrupt dock workers are also part of the problem.
Rotterdam – Dutch investigators seized a record amount of cocaine with a sales value of around 5 billion euros in the port of Rotterdam last year.
A good 70,000 kilograms had been discovered, around 74 percent more than in the previous year, as the public prosecutor announced on Monday in Rotterdam. According to the judiciary, a total of 198 people were arrested.
A record amount of around 40,000 kilograms had already been seized in 2020. Rotterdam and Antwerp are the largest cocaine import ports in Europe. In addition, more than 2,100 kilograms of cocaine had been seized elsewhere in the country.
According to the information, the investigators had discovered amounts of around 4,000 kilograms each four times. It was only in December that the largest single amount of 4180 kilograms of cocaine in a load of bananas was seized.
In most cases, according to information from the judiciary, organized gangs in South America hide the drugs in shipping containers between other goods. In the port of Rotterdam they would then be fetched from the containers by henchmen, often with the help of corrupt port workers.
The judiciary and police want to take stronger action against corrupt port workers and officials in the future. “One thing is certain: without the help of insiders in the port, criminals are nothing,” said the public prosecutor. dpa
