2023-09-13 14:11:41
Special units of the federal police found 2.76 tonnes of cocaine during the search of a hangar in the town of Hamme, East Flanders, on Monday evening. For comparison, Belgian customs seized 110 tonnes in 2022.
The drugs were found in gunny bags, used to store coffee beans. It was the federal judicial police in Antwerp who first spotted the suspicious container. The latter was recovered on Monday at quay 1742 of the port of Antwerp. It was then transported to a warehouse located in the Drapstraat in Hamme. Special units of the federal police were then ordered to carry out a raid around 9 p.m. Nine men and a sixteen-year-old boy were immediately arrested. Shortly afterwards, a 29-year-old man from Meise and the driver of a forklift were arrested. Local police and maritime police also participated in the operation.
Also read Cocaine continues to flow into the port of Antwerp
The people arrested come from Belgium, the Netherlands, Morocco, Armenia, Latvia and Ukraine. They were ultimately all placed under arrest warrant. For the minor, the Youth Court took “appropriate youth protection measures,” the Antwerp public prosecutor’s office said this Wednesday. The latter referred the matter to an investigating judge for “importing narcotics in combination”. The federal judicial police in Antwerp are continuing the investigation.
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