Customs authorities in Rotterdam have confiscated greater than 8,000 kilograms (17,600 kilos) of cocaine, the most important seizure of the drug within the Netherlands
ByMIKE CORDER Related Press
August 10, 2023, 11:15 AM
This image offered on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023, by the Rotterdam Public Prosecution Service reveals 8,000 kilograms (17,637 kilos) of cocaine. Customs authorities within the Netherlands mentioned Thursday they intercepted a cargo of greater than 8,000 kilograms (17,637 kilos) of cocaine final month, the largest ever single seizure of the drug on the Port of Rotterdam. The medicine had an estimated avenue worth of 600 million euros ($662 million), the Rotterdam Public Prosecution Service mentioned in an announcement. (Openbaar Ministerie, Netherlands Public Prosecution Service by way of AP)
The Related Press
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Customs authorities in Rotterdam have confiscated greater than 8,000 kilograms (17,600 kilos) of cocaine, the most important seizure of the drug within the Netherlands, prosecutors mentioned Thursday.
The medicine had an estimated avenue worth of 600 million euros ($662 million), the Rotterdam Public Prosecution Service mentioned in an announcement. No arrests have been made but in an investigation following the invention, which was stored secret due to the continued probe.
Prosecutors mentioned the medicine, which have been destroyed, had been found on July 13 hidden in a container of bananas from Ecuador. The announcement got here the day after a presidential candidate identified for talking out towards drug cartels and corruption within the South American nation was fatally shot at a political rally.
The flourishing drug commerce in Europe is also fueling violence and corruption on the continent, the European Union company that displays medicine and dependancy mentioned in its annual report in June.
It mentioned report quantities of cocaine are being seized in Europe, with 303 tons confiscated by EU member international locations in 2021. Rotterdam and the Belgian port of Antwerp are actually the primary gateways for Latin American cocaine into the continent, it mentioned.
The growth of the cocaine market has been accompanied by an increase in violence and corruption within the EU, with fierce competitors between traffickers resulting in an increase in homicides and intimidation.
Among the many victims within the Netherlands lately had been a lawyer representing a witness within the trial of an alleged drug gangster and crime reporter Peter R. de Vries, who was a confidant of the witness.
Unspecified threats to the inheritor to the Dutch throne, Princess Amalia, compelled her final yr to desert scholar lodging in Amsterdam and proceed her research from dwelling.
In Ecuador, drug traffickers have begun to make use of the nation’s coastal ports and have unleashed a wave of violence not seen there in a long time as rival gangs battle for management.
Final month, the mayor of the port metropolis of Manta was shot and killed. On July 26, President Guillermo Lasso declared a state of emergency overlaying two provinces and the nation’s jail system in an effort to stem the violence.
