2023-07-18 16:53:02
By Le Figaro with AFP
Posted 1 hour ago, Updated 45 minutes ago
This is the biggest seizure made in Antwerp so far in 2023. Africa Studio / stock.adobe.com
In recent years, Antwerp has become the first gateway to Europe for cocaine produced in South America.
Nearly seven tonnes of cocaine were seized on Sunday in the port of Antwerp, Belgium, the Flemish city prosecutor’s office announced on Tuesday, adding that the drug was hidden in a shipment of bananas from Ecuador.
This is the largest seizure made in Antwerp so far in 2023, a spokeswoman for customs told AFP.
Four suspects arrested
In November 2020, the federal prosecutor’s office reported a seizure “record» of 11.5 tons of cocaine in the Belgian port, in a container from Guyana. The drugs were destined for the Netherlands. It was then an operation carried out as part of a judicial investigation aimed at dismantling a vast criminal organization operating between South America and Europe. In February 2021, another interception, as part of another international case, involved 7.3 tonnes.
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Regarding the seizure of 6.82 tonnes made Sunday at midday on one of the multiple quays of the port of Antwerp, the prosecution did not give details of the circumstances. Four suspects aged 23 to 50 were arrested by the federal police and then imprisoned by an examining magistrate, he simply indicated.
Read alsoDrugs: historic seizures, according to the government’s 2022 report
In recent years, seizures have been flying from record to record in Antwerp, which has become the first gateway to Europe for cocaine produced in South America, once morest a backdrop of increased consumption on the Old Continent. Last week Belgian customs said they had seized 43.3 tons of white powder in this cargo port during the first half of the year, a 21% increase compared to the same period of 2022.
Nearly 109.9 tons were seized in 2022. This is the first time that the symbolic bar of one hundred tons has been crossed. In the first half of 2023 almost half of the cocaine volumes intercepted came from three countries: Ecuador (10.42 tons), Panama (5.26 tons) and Brazil (3.45).
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