Customs officials found nearly 3,600 kilograms of cocaine during an inspection at the Port of Rotterdam. The drugs held a street value of 269 million euros, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) said on Monday. Two other batches of drugs weighing a total of 2,000 kilograms were also found in an operation involving the Dutch Navy in the Caribbean. It is the largest cocaine find at the Rotterdam port this year. No arrests were announced.
Customs inspections at the Port of Rotterdam led to the discovery of 1,574 kilograms of cocaine this week. The drugs have a combined street value of roughly 118 million euros, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) said. The first batch was by far the biggest, weighing 1,124 kilograms and valued at 84.3 million euros. It was found on Tuesday in a sea container loaded with car tires. The sea container was on a ship that arrived from Turkey, and the paperwork showed the cargo was to be delivered to a company in Hellevoetsluis, southwest of Rotterdam.
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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.