cocaine

Customs officers in the Netherlands found 70 kilograms of cocaine hidden inside the hold of a ship in Amsterdam harbor. The street value of the seized cocaine is €1.7 million, according to financial crimes investigation service FIOD.

So far, nobody was arrested in connection with the raid. The cargo ship arrived in the Netherlands from Brazil, and was carrying grain.

The packages of cocaine were found on December 16, but authorities only first revealed the bust on Monday. The drugs were later destroyed.

The court in Amsterdam sentenced three men to up to 13 years in prison for large-scale cocaine trafficking. Large batches of cocaine were smuggled out of South America on container ships, thrown overboard at sea, and then fished out by fishing boats from Urk and brought to the Netherlands, NOS reports.

The most severe punishment was imposed on Muhammed S. According to the court, he played a leading role in the smuggling network, which has been trafficking cocaine to the Netherlands since 2015. S. was sentenced to 13 years in prison.

The police arrested a 51-year-old from Schiedam for involvement in the murder of mental health director Rob Zweekhorst in Berkel en Rodenrijs on January 1st, 2014. The arrest is the result of an investigation "that never stopped", the police said, according to NU.nl.

Former TV presenter Frank Masmeijer, suspected of trafficking cocaine through the port of Antwerp, was arrested in a hotel in Breda on Tuesday. According to Masmeijers' Dutch lawyer, Geert-Jan Knoops, Belgium recently issued an arrest warrant for his client in connection with the drug trafficking case, NU.nl reports.

The police discovered a "production site for narcotics" in a home on Ophoven in Sittard after there was a fire in the building on Monday evening. The police believe that the home was used to produce and dry cocaine, but further investigation is currently impossible due to the instability of the building. No arrests have been made, the police said in a statement.

A couple from Houten was killed in a serious accident on the A44 near Nieuw-Vennep on Saturday. A third person was seriously hurt. The man suspected of causing the accident, a 32-year-old man from Oestgeest, was under the influence of alcohol and drugs at the time. He fled the scene of the accident on foot, but was later caught by the police.

Four Dutch and a German were caught with 300 kilograms of cocaine on a yacht near Mallorca on Sunday. They were arrested by the Spanish authorities, NOS reports.

Sixteen sports bags full of drugs were discovered in a material container on the terrain of the Van Braam Houckgeest barracks in Doorn on Tuesday. It involved dozens of kilograms of what seems to be cocaine, the Koninklijke Marechausssee, a policing force that works as part of the Dutch military, said on Twitter. 

The drugs were sent to the Netherlands Forensic Institution for testing.

A 60-year-old truck driver from the Netherlands was sentenced to 10 years in prison in Great Britain for cocaine trafficking. He was caught smuggling 15 kilograms of the drug into the country early this year. According to the British Prosecutor, the drugs are worth around 1.5 million pounds, or about 1.7 million euros, RTL Nieuws reports.

The Dutch man was arrested at Harwich harbor on January 22nd, shortly after arriving there with his truck. He declared that he was carrying computer parts.

The Rotterdam investigative authorities are going to use cameras for extra surveillance at the port of Rotterdam. They hope that this will help in the fight against cocaine- and human trafficking. "In this way the net around the cocaine traffickers will be pulled tighter again", Bert Wiersema, director of enforcement policy at customs, said NU.nl reports.

The first new cameras were installed on the Maasvlakte following a successful test on Sluisjesdijk. Almost 200 more will be added in the coming years. 

On Tuesday the police busted a drug network in Brunssum, Limburg. Four men were arrested for trading drugs on the dark web, and sending drugs all across the world through the regular postal service, the Public Prosecutor announced on Friday. 

This investigation was launched after PostNL found drugs in packages during a drug check. According to the Prosecutor, the suspects had clients all over the world and sent drugs, mostly ecstasy, to their clients in normal postal packages and envelopes.