Never before has so much cocaine been intercepted in the ports of Rotterdam, Antwerp and Vlissingen

While less cocaine was intercepted in the port of Rotterdam last year with 45,500 kilos, the ports of Antwerp and Vlissingen recorded records, according to figures presented on Wednesday by the Dutch and Belgian investigation services. Five striking trends.

1. Dutch-Belgian record

As a distribution country, the Netherlands plays a central role in the European cocaine trade. Drug criminals use the ports of Rotterdam, Antwerp and to a lesser extent Vlissingen to import cocaine on a large scale and then distribute it further via the Netherlands.

Never before has so much cocaine been intercepted in those ports as in 2023, according to figures that the Belgian and Dutch investigative services published simultaneously on Wednesday: more than 173,000 kilos. If, as the Public Prosecution Service (OM) does, one takes into account that the cocaine is cut and then sold for 50 euros per gram, this amounts to a street price of almost 13 billion euros.

2. Trend break in Rotterdam

The most striking thing is that ‘only’ around 45,500 kilos were seized in the port of Rotterdam by the so-called Hit and Run Cargo team (HARC team) – a partnership of police, customs, FIOD and Public Prosecution Service. That is slightly less than last year and, above all, drastically less than the more than 70,000 kilos in 2021.

Lower seizure rates could mean criminals are moving away. Jan Janse, head of the Seaport Police, concludes from the figures that Rotterdam is “on the right track”. He attributes the decrease to various measures such as the expansion of the HARC team, cooperation with port companies and the use of technological tools such as drones and smart cameras. “There has been an increase in seizures in almost all European ports, but in Rotterdam we see a significant break in the trend.”

The fact that smugglers sometimes skip the port is most evident from the explanation given by Customs regional director Peter van Buijtenen. Last year, customs scanned 40 percent more containers, said Van Buitenen, who left the total number of containers undisclosed. “That gives me a cautious sense of optimism. We check more, check more closely and the number of catches remains the same.”

3. Greatest find ever

Last year, the HARC team found the largest shipment of cocaine ever in the Netherlands: 8,088 kilos. That batch was found among a load of bananas from Ecuador. NRC revealed last summer, based on internal HARC figures, that Ecuador, not Colombia, has been the most important country for cocaine smuggling to the Netherlands for three years in a row. The country, now suffering from heavy drug gang violence, borders Colombia and Peru, the world’s top cocaine-producing countries. Countries where, moreover, it turns out from UN figuresin ten years the number of hectares for the cultivation of coca plants has more than doubled.

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The HARC team in Rotterdam discovered a total of 170 batches of cocaine. It is striking that despite the mega evening of 8,088 kilos, the number of large lots of more than 1,000 kilos is decreasing: from 17 in 2022 to 13 in 2023.

The many seizures do not appear to have any effect on the street price and purity of cocaine. The street price has been around 50 euros per gram for years and the purity of cocaine has never been so high. A possible explanation lies in oversupply due to increased production in South America.

4. Many more lungers

Last year, 452 extractors were arrested at the Rotterdam port site, up from 251 the year before. They move cocaine from incoming containers that have been designated for customs control to ‘safe’ containers that can leave the port site unchecked. Among them were 64 minors. Three quarters had not previously been arrested as an offender.

According to Rotterdam chief public prosecutor Hugo Hillenaar, a possible explanation lies in the case law of the Hague court. A special law on offenders has been in force since 2022, which allows offenders to be sentenced to a year in prison instead of a small fine. The Hague Court of Appeal does not want that. It uses that as a line first offenders was given community service and the Rotterdam court, which did impose prison sentences, blew its whistle back. Hillenaar: “It may be that criminal organizations deliberately first offenders are sent.”

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5. Relationship with violence

The central role of the Netherlands is not only reflected in Rotterdam, Vlissingen and Antwerp. The cocaine trade and the resulting liquidations and other settlements also place a heavy burden on society. In addition to the murders of the brother of the key witness, his lawyer Derk Wiersum and confidante Peter R. de Vries, related to the Marengo liquidation process, there are also more attacks on homes and shops with heavy explosives. Until December 1, there were 622 explosions, a third of which occurred in Rotterdam.

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It led Mayor Aboutaleb to say last spring that the explosion wave in his city was the result of the successful interception of drug shipments in the port. Rotterdam chief public prosecutor Hugo Hillenaar: “That link is difficult to demonstrate one-on-one. What we do see is that many of those explosions are drug-related. Often arguments in the criminal environment about drug consignments, unpaid bills, stolen consignments.”

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