Drug gangs trying to infiltrate Rotterdam port by sending members to shipping schools

Drug gangs have sent young people to shipping schools several times in recent years in an attempt to get people into important strategic positions at the port of Rotterdam in the long term. From such a position, they could help the gangs bring shipments of drugs that arrive at the port. The seaport police confirmed this after reports in AD.

The gangs allegedly registered at least five students at various shipping schools in recent years. In some cases, the schools found out when a person arrested for retrieving drugs from a shipping container at the port of Rotterdam was also training at the school.

“These practices are not new,” said a spokesperson of the Seaport Police. “Drug gangs, like regular companies, have an HR department that looks at who and what is needed to ensure that operations run smoothly.”

Jan Janse, head of the Rotterdam Seaport Police, said on Tuesday, when announcing the annual figures of intercepted cocaine, that gangs always have to find new solutions for the longer term. That is because the police and customs are increasingly intensifying the fight against drug gangs’ activities.

Janse also said that gangs almost always rely on corrupt people working at the port or with the authorities to extract drugs from containers. A corrupt employee in a strategic position, such as a logistics planner, is of great value to a drug gang.

Corruption is often also lucrative for the employee themself. In December 2021, the Rotterdam police came across over 7.9 million euros in cash while searching a house in an investigation into a corrupt port employee.

The authorities seized 46,789 kilograms of cocaine, with a street value of 3.5 billion euros, at the port of Rotterdam in 2022. That was significantly less than the year before when the authorities seized 70 tons of cocaine at the port.