Cocaine seizures on the Belgian port of Antwerp, the principle gateway to Europe for primarily South American drug cartels, reached a brand new report final yr, authorities stated on Wednesday.
Some 116 tons of cocaine had been seized in Antwerp alone, Belgian Finance Minister Vincent van Peteghem advised reporters, a rise of 5 p.c from 2022, which in itself was a report determine.
The Netherlands, neighboring Belgium and Spain are the highest three European international locations when it comes to unlawful cocaine imports, with the bulk coming from Panama, Colombia and Ecuador.
On the similar press convention, Dutch officers stated that they had seized 59.1 tons of cocaine in 2023, additionally a pointy enhance from the yr earlier than.
Antwerp and the Dutch port of Rotterdam usually expertise gunfire and explosions linked to wars between highly effective worldwide drug gangs.
The 2 ports had been the 2 predominant entry factors utilized by a Dubai-based 'tremendous cartel' that provides a 3rd of Europe's cocaine and was busted in late 2022, in accordance with Europol.
The cocaine is often hidden in containers, or generally beneath ships in openings beneath the waterline, the place they’re then recovered by divers.
Sniffer canine and police frogmen are deployed on the container terminals of Antwerp and Rotterdam, however the authorities worry that they solely intercept a fraction of the unlawful cargo.
“The drug traffickers won’t let something cease them and can use all accessible assets,” says Aukje de Vries, State Secretary for Customs.
“That’s the reason we should do all the things we are able to to intercept medication.”
Dutch authorities carried out a significant housebreaking in August, discovering greater than eight tons of cocaine hidden in a banana cargo from Ecuador – the biggest cargo ever.
European officers have stated organized crime is as massive a menace to the continent as terrorism.
Felony gangs have made threats in opposition to Belgian Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, and drug trafficking has brought on a spike in armed violence.
The figures had been revealed the day after 22 individuals, together with three law enforcement officials, had been arrested in an enormous anti-drug operation.
About 350 officers had been deployed, primarily in Brussels and Antwerp, and 45 searches had been carried out, ensuing within the seizure of money, luxurious autos and a pistol, federal police stated in a press release.
Belgium is at the moment holding a mega drug trafficking trial with greater than 120 defendants within the dock, thanks largely to researchers who’ve cracked encrypted messaging apps.
Final yr, the authorities introduced a report freight of 109.9 tons in Antwerp.
The haul in Rotterdam and the smaller port of Vlissingen within the Netherlands amounted to 52.5 tons in 2023.
