Dutch customs have hit the international drug market. Investigators found three tons of cocaine in a container with banana puree from Ecuador.
Rotterdam – Dutch customs discovered three tons of cocaine with a street value of 225 million euros in the port of Rotterdam.
The drug was discovered two days ago in a container from Ecuador between barrels of banana puree, the prosecutor said on Friday. The container was intended for a company in Basel, which the investigators believe has probably nothing to do with the smuggling. It is one of the largest cocaine discoveries in the port of Rotterdam. The drug has since been destroyed.
Regardless of the latest drug discovery, twelve employees of a container company have been arrested in the port of Rotterdam in the past few weeks on suspicion of cocaine smuggling and corruption, the public prosecutor said. The ten men and two women are said to have used their knowledge of the port to import and transport cocaine and also to get narcotics out of containers.
As the Dutch customs announced the day before, around 50 tons of drugs were confiscated in the first half of 2021, which were destined for the Dutch ports. Around 22 tonnes were confiscated in the Netherlands itself, and customs investigators have already discovered 28 tonnes abroad. In order to curb drug trafficking from the Netherlands, the authorities have been checking postal items abroad more intensively since last summer. Around 8,000 letters and parcels with narcotics were discovered, customs officials said. dpa
