April 26, 2021
Drugs gangs have the run of the logistics process at Rotterdam port, enabled by widespread criminal infiltration at shipping companies, the head of the port police has told the NRC.
The Netherlands is the main European distribution centre for drugs and Rotterdam port is key because of widespread corruption at port-related companies, Jan Janse, who heads the port’s Hit and Run Cargo Team, told the paper.
The lucrative trade in cocaine, brought to the country in containers from South America, has been responsible for a surge in organised crime at the port, he said. Janse and his team, made up of the fraud office, customs, police and the prosecution department, intercepted nearly 41 tonnes of cocaine at the port last year.