The operation lasted more than a week and resulted in the arrest of a 28-year-old man from Vlaardingden, the Netherlands, whose address was the shipment, police said.
In connection with a fee from colleagues in the Netherlands, customs officers in the German port city of Hamburg opened three cargo containers, which contain construction mass, said Rene Matschke, head of German customs. In the container test facility, they found that the cans were not only loaded with putty, but also with packets of cocaine.
Investigators found 16,174 kilograms of cocaine hidden in 1,728 cans of construction putty. Police arrived on a ship from Paraguay via Tangier and Rotterdam.
It was “pretty disgusting to separate the cocaine from the putty because it’s so sticky,” Matschke told CNN, adding that the drugs would have a street value of several billion euros.
The Dutch police said that a ‘risk analysis’ they had done led the German authorities to check the three containers on 12 February.
Dutch authorities said they were starting an investigation into the recipient of the Hamburg cargo after the seizure, which led them to 11 cargo containers en route from Panama to Antwerp, apparently filled with pineapple, mackerel, squid and wood.
According to Dutch police, Belgian authorities found 7,200 kilograms of cocaine in the container containing wooden blocks on Saturday.
“The intercepted mega shipments to the Netherlands together form an absolute record,” Dutch police said in a statement. “Never before has so much cocaine been intercepted simultaneously.”
Officials said it was not only the largest seizure of cocaine ever in Europe, but also one of the largest single seizures worldwide.
Rolf Bösinger, State Secretary for the German Federal Ministry of Finance, praised the customs officials and said: “We have managed to seize a record amount of cocaine. With this blow against organized drug crime – also thanks to the exemplary cooperation with European partner authorities – “German Customs has once again provided impressive evidence. Our strategy to strengthen customs on a large scale is working.”
Hamburg’s customs officers handle about eight million containers a year.