The European port that seizes 70,000 kilograms of cocaine a year and fights drug trafficking

The Port of Rotterdam has intercepted more than 70,000 kilograms of cocaine a yearwhich is on the streets worth 5,000 million euros, and daily fights corruption and crime committed by drug traffickers from Europe and Latin America at the largest pier in Europe.

Hundreds of eyes are watching every container coming from the other side of the Atlantic, officials ’investigation is rising for avoid corruption and one looks with a magnifying glass at those rotating in the harbor.

Authorities were clear the drugs had been intercepted This is the tip of the icebergso they plan to manage to check all the containers that come from the countries of origin of the medicines, the ones that carry tropical fruits from South and Central America, because the current randomized test only allows checking in 1% of the whole.

“We are constantly trying to improve our game. This is an ongoing fight against criminals: if we can find a good way to combat it, they will find ways to cope with it”, Said Efe Boudewijn Siemons, director of operations of the Port Authority, while visiting the pier.

Last year, they found 70,570 kilograms of cocaine in the port, of which the largest discovery was 4,180 kilograms in a banana container, that is. a 74% increase from 2020according to data from HARC, a group comprised of customs authorities, police, prosecution and financial crimes.

lack of infrastructure

But the increase in seizures is not approaching the end of the problem. From the Authority there is support for the registration of more containers, but they admit that there is still not enough infrastructure and they suggest that there may be “smart” alternatives to check everything physically.

We are working hard, like a pandemic or Brexit. It’s a complex problem without someone with a silver bullet, he added.

In addition to local authorities, the port of Rotterdam works with those in the Belgian port of Antwerp because ships could divert there if controls were tightened, taking advantage of open borders.

Siemons shared the view that Latin America also insists: suppress consumption.

Cocaine is the second most used illegal drug in the European Union after cannabis, where approximately 3.5 million people between the ages of 15 and 64 admitted to taking it last year and approximately 14 million who had taken it at some point in their lives, according to Europol and the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drugs.drug addiction

Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands account for three quarters of cocaine seizureswhich by 2020 reached a record 214.6 tonnes across Europe for a drug mainly produced in Colombia, Bolivia and Peru, but that is increasingly being processed within Europe.

“There is a responsibility in society to openly discuss the need: people in Europe consume cocaine, and if they don’t drink, they don’t have to go in. This is a war we have to fight on many frontsdriven by Siemons.

The expansion of the cocaine market in Europe has brought an increase in homicides, kidnappings and intimidation, and the violence has spread to those outside the drug market, including lawyers, officials and journalists.

EFE Agency

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