Over 1,500 kilos of cocaine intercepted at Rotterdam port

Customs officers intercepted two shipments of cocaine at the port of Rotterdam on Tuesday. The total of 1,527 kilograms of drugs have a street value of over 114 million euros, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) said on Wednesday.

The first batch of 450 kilograms of cocaine was found between cans of asparagus from Peru. The asparagus was destined for a company in Spain. The authorities prevented extractors from removing the drugs from the container and smuggling it out of the port of Rotterdam, the OM said.

A short time later, customs offices found 1,077 kilograms of cocaine hidden among a shipment of guitars from the United States. The instruments were destined for a Dutch company. “The drugs may have been put in the container somewhere in South America,” the OM said.

The OM doesn’t believe the Spanish and Dutch companies were involved in the drug trafficking. The HARC team, a partnership of Customs, FIOD, Seaport Police, and OM, is investigating.