Investigators find €80 million in cocaine at Dutch ports
Customs authorities seized 1,070 kilograms of cocaine at the ports of Rotterdam and Vlissingen and a company in Middelburg since Sunday. The drugs had a total street value of around 80 million euros.
On Tuesday, Customs and the police found 430 kilograms of cocaine at a company in Middelburg during a general check. Customs also intercepted 509 kilograms of the drug at the port of Vlissingen with the help of the Koninklijke Marechaussee on the same day.
According to Customs, the drugs had a combined street value of over 70 million euros. The cocaine was destroyed.
On Sunday, the authorities found 130 kilograms of cocaine in a container of avocados at the port of Rotterdam. The container came from Peru and was on its way to a company in Barendrecht, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) said. The drugs, with a street value of 9.7 million euros, were destroyed.
The authorities believe that the three companies that received the containers had nothing to do with the drug trafficking.
Last week, Customs officers found another 600 kilograms of cocaine, worth about 45 million euros, in a shipment of bananas at the port of Vlissignen. Here too, the drugs were destroyed, and the company that imported the bananas is not suspected of involvement.
