Drug criminals infiltrate on a large scale international shipping companies that transport containers to and from the port of Rotterdam. “The corruption in the port is no longer limited to customs and is much greater than people think”, says Jan Janse district chief of the Seaport Police. in an interview with NRC.
The criminals place henchmen in important places in the shipping companies, enabling them to facilitate large-scale drug smuggling. According to Janse, this mainly concerns shipping companies that transport containers from South America, such as MSC, Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM.
More and more drugs are intercepted
The henchmen ensure that ‘takers’ take drugs out of the containers unnoticed and transport them further outside the port, bypassing fences, entrance gates and cameras. According to Janse, this happens en masse, for example by accomplices who allow themselves to be smuggled into the port area in an empty container. “That is only possible if someone at the shipping company helps you.”
As a distribution country, the Netherlands plays a major role in the European cocaine trade. The amount intercepted is growing every year: last year a record of more than 40,000 kilos of cocaine was seized by the Hit And Run Cargo (HARC) team of the police, customs and FIOD. In 2014 that was 7,575 kilos. The street price of cocaine has not increased in the meantime, writes NRC, which indicates that the amount of cocaine received has not decreased. According to Janse, the HARC team has to stop many investigations prematurely due to understaffing.
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