Undercover cop smuggled 100 kg cocaine through Vlissingen port
In an investigation into drug trafficking in the port of Vlissingen, an undercover cop posed as a drug criminal and imported 100 kilograms of cocaine through a transshipment company. The police officer paid 180,000 euros to the directors of the company, Nieuwsuur reports based on the police file.
On May 6, the police raided Bulk Terminal Zeeland (BTZ), searched several homes, and arrested the company's three directors. On Wednesday, Vlissingen mayor Bas van Tillaar ordered the company to close for a year.
The authorities have long suspected that BTZ was a cover for cocaine trafficking. During the lengthy investigation, decrypted chat messages revealed the company as a facilitator of drug trafficking. The police tapped the directors’ communications for a year in a half. They also covertly installed microphones in the directors’ offices and a camera at the company’s entrance gate.
And the police deployed an infiltrator. A police officer posed as a drug criminal and smuggled drugs through the company. After several meetings, the cop paid two directors 180,000 euros and smuggled 100 kilograms of cocaine through the BTZ premises. The police concluded that several shipments of cocaine, totaling around 2,500 kilograms, had been present on the BTZ premises in recent years.
The drugs the cop smuggled came from a shipment previously seized at a completely different location, lawyer Rinus Wouters, representing suspected director Jacco G., told Nieuwsuur. “This shows how far the investigation goes.”
The lawyer said that the authorities didn’t find any drug money on Jacco G. “He knew nothing,” Wouters said. “It may be different for the co-suspects.” There was also no mention of drug trafficking in any of G.’s tapped communications, the lawyer said.
The Public Prosecution Service (OM) believes that G., as director, must have noticed the drug transports. But according to Wouters, “he can’t keep an eye on everything.” The lawyer added that many port companies have to deal with drug trafficking, but that does not necessarily mean that the management is involved.
Wouters called the closure of BTZ exaggerated. “BTZ is being portrayed as a criminal organization. In my view, that is really incorrect.”
Another director, Ko de K., denies having “anything to do with drugs,” his lawyer René de Groot said. “He thought that the money came from cash payments from the scrap metal trade. I have found little or no evidence of his involvement in the cocaine trade in the file. An infiltration has taken place, and the question is whether that was done correctly. Seems suspiciously like entrapment to me.”
The third director asked his lawyer not to respond.
The authorities have seized almost 2 million euros from the three directors, according to data from the land registry. BTZ was declared bankrupt last week.
