German and Belgian authorities have seized more than 25 tonnes of cocaine with a street value of about $ 730 million – and the owner of a Dutch import company has been arrested in connection with the record haul, officials announced on Wednesday.
The coke was found on February 12 in a search for five containers from Paraguay that were reported as suspects in a risk analysis by several European customs authorities, the Hamburg customs office said.
They observed ‘clear irregularities’ in three containers loaded with putty in cans but also containing other objects, officials said. The drug was found in more than 1,700 cans.
About 17.6 tons of cocaine were found by authorities in the German port of Hamburg, while customs officers in Antwerp, Belgium, seized almost eight tons.
Referring to the overall move, which was destined for the Netherlands, the Dutch prosecutor’s office said that “never before has so much cocaine been intercepted” in a single operation.
A 28-year-old Dutchman who owns an import business in Rotterdam was arrested on Wednesday when police in the Netherlands searched two places – one in the port city and another in a nearby village.
“The seizure of mega shipments to the Netherlands together forms an absolute record. “Never before has so much cocaine been intercepted at the same time,” Dutch police said in a statement.
“The find is among the world’s top five,” Rene Matschke, head of Hamburg’s customs office, told Agence France-Presse.
With Post threads