German and Belgian authorities have seized more than 25 tons of cocaine with a street value of about $ 730 million – and the owner of a Dutch import company has been arrested in connection with the record transport, officials said on Wednesday.
Coca-Cola was found on February 12 in search of five containers in Paraguay that were reported as suspects in a risk analysis by several European customs authorities, the Hamburg customs office said.
They detected “clear irregularities” in three containers, which were loaded with putty in tin cans, but appeared to contain other items, officials said, who found the drug in more than 1,700 boxes.
About 17.6 tons of cocaine were found by authorities in the German port of Hamburg, while customs officials in Antwerp, Belgium, confiscated almost eight tons.
Referring to the general transport, which was destined for the Netherlands, the Dutch national prosecutor’s office said that “so much cocaine has never been intercepted” in a single operation.
A 28-year-old Dutchman who owns an import company in Rotterdam was arrested on Wednesday, while Dutch police searched two locations – one in the port city and another in a nearby village.
“Mega shipments confiscated to the Netherlands together form an absolute record. Never before has so much cocaine been intercepted at once, “Dutch police said in a statement.
“The discovery is among the top five worlds,” Rene Matschke, head of Hamburg’s customs office, told France-Presse.
With Post threads