More than 2400 kg of cocaine found after false bomb threat on MSC Lorena
More than 2,400 kilograms of cocaine were found on the container ship MSC Lorena, which was forced to dock in Vlissingen in late December after a bomb threat that later turned out to be false alarm. "The drugs were found in a container with a deckload of cocoa," the Antwerp prosecutor's office said.
The bomb threat was received by Belgian police on Dec. 22, when the container ship was off the coast of Vlissingen. The ship was then forced to anchor for a week. After nothing was found through investigations, the ship was able to dock in the port of Antwerp on Dec. 29 to unload its cargo.
Later, the police arrested two suspects involved in the false bomb threat. The two suspects were a 24-year-old man from Delft and a 22-year-old from Hagenaar. The two men are suspected of threatening to commit a terrorist crime.
According to NOS, the police wants the damage caused by the false bomb threat to be recovered from the two suspects. "The ship had to be anchored for a week, so the cargo could not be unloaded. In addition, one must realize that, for example, just lending a telephone to express a threat can have enormous consequences," Gert Wibbelink, head of the Infrastructure Department of the National Unit, told the public broadcast.
Reporting by ANP and NL Times