Port worker gets 6 years for cocaine trafficking

A 44-year-old port worker from Rozenburg was sentenced to six years in prison for involvement in large-scale cocaine smuggling. The court considered it proven that the man, who worked at a transhipment company at the port of Rotterdam, was involved in three shipments involving a total of 1,150 kilograms of cocaine, NOS reports.

The court considered it proven that the man was bribed to arrange that containers from suspicious countries be placed close to containers from trusted countries. Once at the port, the drugs were then sneaked into containers that had already been released by customs.

The Public Prosecutor demanded nine years in prison against the man. The court gave him a lower sentence because he was "a small link in a larger whole" and does not seem to have been involved in the organization of the drug transports. The court did condemn the man for abusing his "position of trust, in which he was paid well to prevent corruption".

The port worker was caught red handed almost two years ago, according to NOS. The police caught him while he was arranging the handling of a container on a computer. 363 kilograms of cocaine were found in that container.