Sharp rise in Dutch youth cocaine runners in Antwerp, youngest arrested just 13
Dutch teenagers—some as young as 13—are being sent into the port of Antwerp in growing numbers to retrieve cocaine from shipping containers, according to Belgian authorities. More than 140 of these so-called uithalers—a Dutch term for drug retrievers—have been arrested in the first five months of 2025, already surpassing the total for all of last year, NOS reported.
About half of those arrested were Dutch nationals, including 20 minors. Belgian police say many are recruited by drug gangs to act as expendable carriers with little understanding of the legal risks.
“In the Netherlands, a first-time retriever usually gets away with community service or a suspended sentence,” An Berger of the Belgian federal police told NOS. “Here, an adult caught between the containers receives an average prison sentence of 40 months. Minors can be held in juvenile detention for weeks or even months.”
Defense attorney Chantal van den Bosch, who frequently represents suspects arrested in the port, said she has seen a sharp rise in Dutch teens being caught.
“They assume they’ll be sent home the same night. But that is absolutely not the case,” she told NOS. “It’s important these boys understand they won’t be back at home with their mother anytime soon.”
The contrast with the Netherlands is stark. Arrests of retrievers in Rotterdam have plummeted this year, with only a few dozen cases—far fewer than in 2024. Antwerp, meanwhile, has become a hotspot.
Berger said the uptick in arrests reflects a change in smuggling tactics. Cocaine shipments are being divided into smaller parcels, requiring more frequent pickups.
“Instead of moving tons of cocaine at once, we now mostly find 50 or 60 bricks—that fits in a single gym bag,” she told NOS. “We’re seeing more small groups of two or three retrievers sent in each night. If they fail, another group goes in the next night.”
The cocaine, often shipped from South America, is typically hidden in the engine compartments of refrigerated containers. Traffickers use GPS trackers to locate the stash, and retrievers are given coordinates by their handlers. Police say many are caught wandering through the port at night, scanning their phones between stacks of containers.
Stricter port security has also reportedly contributed. More police have been deployed, surveillance has been expanded, and vehicle checks have intensified. “The chances of getting caught have significantly increased,” Berger told NOS.
Many of the Dutch teens come from vulnerable backgrounds in cities like Rotterdam and Amsterdam, though some are from smaller towns. Police say they’re often recruited through Snapchat or Telegram and offered modest rewards to take on high-risk missions. “Sometimes they’ll do it for an iPhone or a few hundred euros,” Berger said. “If they get caught, the drug bosses drop them immediately.”
Van den Bosch said some are promised more. “They’re offered between 5,000 and 20,000 euros,” she told NOS. “But they’re all blinded by the power of ‘bling bling.’”
Joris van der Aa, a journalist with Gazet van Antwerpen, said many of the teens now showing up in Antwerp are the same youths previously involved in placing fireworks bombs on doorsteps in the Netherlands.
“They’re used to recover cocaine that’s essentially considered lost,” he told NOS. “Sending them in is a kind of desperate last resort.”
Van der Aa added that Dutch criminal groups are far more likely than Belgian ones to send teenagers into the port. “Belgian organizations know the odds of getting caught are pretty high, so they usually won’t take that risk.”
Most say nothing after being arrested. Van den Bosch said she advises her clients to remain silent for their own protection. “I always tell them to invoke their right to remain silent,” she told NOS. “They get a copy of their statement, and I tell them: keep it with you to show you’re not a snitch. This is not a world where you can say, ‘I talked, but I won’t do it again.’”
