The affair revolves around a 450kg load of cocaine found in the port of Hamburg in March of 2021, in a container of bananas shipped from Colombia. That the cocaine batch in Hamburg was not the destination. The smugglers wanted to unload the coke in Antwerp, but apparently something went wrong.

The investigation of the Dutch police focused on a number of key figures, who are mainly from Dutch Limburg focused on the. According to regional broadcaster Limburg 1, it was Roger K. (47) from Sittard and Raymond P. (57) from Landgraaf. During the first pro forma sessions of the court in the Netherlands, interim sessions in which the investigation is discussed with the lawyers, there were about twenty suspects.

Antwerp connections

During their investigation, which is supported by intercepted Sky messages, the Dutch investigators came across an Antwerp connection. At the request of Dutch colleagues, Belgian investigators raided Cees van de W.’s home in Brasschaat (67). Van de W. is a well-known fruit trader, with roots in Bergen op Zoom. He has made companies available to make cocaine smuggling possible.

A fourth main suspect was able to stay out of the hands of the Dutch police services. According to Limburg 1, it concerns the Antwerp Albanian Ermir N. (40), best known as ‘Cinco’ in environmentally friendly terms. Intercepted Sky messages suggest that he plays a leading role in coke smuggling from Colombia to Antwerp. Cinco was acquitted by the appeals court in June in the Mackerel case. He is also one of the suspects found in the investigation of Frank De Tank and associates.

Involvement denied

Lawyer Walter Damen does not want to respond extensively to the clients at his address. “I only recently became aware of the Dutch file. We’re going to take the case,” Damen said. “My client denies any takeover when the facts are mentioned. And I would like to point out that my past ten payments were also earmarked for such facts.”