Belgium: record cocaine seizure in Antwerp
The Belgian authorities announced on Friday that they had seized 89.5 tonnes of cocaine in the port of Antwerp in 2021, which represents an increase of 36% compared to 2020 and a doubling in five years.
Belgium is now the main point of entry for cocaine into Europe, ahead of Spain and the Netherlands, said Belgian Customs Administrator Kristian Vanderwaeren at a press conference. The seized goods arrived mainly from Panama, Ecuador and Paraguay. These 89.5 tonnes of drugs are estimated at 12.76 billion euros in market value.
Better efficiency of Belgian customs? Finance Minister Vincent Van Peteghem, interviewed by AFP, attributed this sharp increase to “an increase in drug trafficking at the international level” which was coupled with a large drug operation launched last year on the basis of the decryption of messages sent by traffickers on the Sky ECC communications network, an operation which alone allowed the recovery of 27 tonnes of drugs.
Five people indicted in France
This network is also the subject of investigations in other countries including France, where five people were indicted at the end of March, suspected of having claimed encrypted phones to traffickers.
The port of Antwerp is also better equipped to detect drugs hidden in containers. A specialized detection team has been put in place, the number of sniffer dogs has increased, puppies are in training, and five giant x-ray scanners have been installed to monitor the charges.
The Backscatter, for example, is a vehicle equipped with cameras that circulate around the containers to detect possible traces of drugs inside. More than 8.5 million containers pass through the huge port of Antwerp every year. Belgian authorities also seized 11.7 tonnes of hashish and 1.3 tonnes of heroin in 2021.