Another €54 million in cocaine seized at Rotterdam port; Shipments from Curaçao, Dominican Republic
Customs officials at the Port of Rotterdam found over 720 kilograms of cocaine on Thursday. The drugs were in two separate shipments, and were valued at roughly 54 million euros in total. There were no arrests announced in either case.
The largest shipment was found hidden in a sea container filled with multiple smaller consignments. The container was sent from Curaçao, and was found to be hiding 15 boxes stuffed with cocaine. All told, there were 460 packages averaging nearly a kilogram of cocaine each hidden inside the suspect boxes.
The net weight was 458 kilograms, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) said on Friday. The drugs had a street value of over 34 million euros, the OM continued.
In a busy day at the port, Customs officers also found a significant amount of cocaine hidden at the bottom of a sea container filled with bananas. The shipment arrived from the Dominican Republic, the OM said.
In this case, a total of 263 kilograms of cocaine was found. It had an estimated street value of 20 million euros. The bananas were being sent to a company in Germany which was not believed to be involved in the drug smuggling attempt.
The combined total of 721 kilograms of cocaine have since been destroyed, the OM stated. The cases were being investigated by the Hit-and-Run Cargo Team, a joint service comprised of employees from Customs, the Seaport Police, the Rotterdam Public Prosecution Service, and financial crimes investigators from FIOD.
