Last week, Belgian Police and Customs officers discovered around 500kg of cocaine stockpiled in containers hauling printing paper in the medium-sized port of Ghent.
Together with Belgian and Dutch Customs, the Shipping Policy, and the Federal Judicial Police in East Flanders, a comprehensive check was conducted on a bulk carrier carrying fruit juice from Santos, Brazil. The ship had been the port since September 21.
Port of Ghent in FleetMon Explorer
“Both the outside of the ship – by divers from Dutch Customs – and the cargo were checked, using the mobile scanner of Belgian Customs and a police drug dog.” The police said in a press release.
They added, “12 containers with printing paper were unloaded and fully searched.”
At the end of the search, almost 50 boxes, with each box having ten packages of cocaine were discovered in the containers. The net weight of the seizure stood around 500 kilograms (half a ton), with a total valuation of €25 million.
The Federal Judicial Police of East Flanders has received a nod from the East Flanders Public Prosecutor’s Office for investigating the seizure and unearthing the criminal organization behind the shipment.
Speaking to VRT news, Patrick Willocx of the Federal Judicial Police Service said that traffickers are increasingly relying on medium-sized ports like Ghent, ever since seizures at Antwerp has been increasing due to increased vigilance. He also mentioned that since there is limited container traffic at Ghent, it is less suited to trafficking compared to Antwerp.
Previously, drugs have been seized in Ghent from Bulk Carriers carrying fruit juice, coal, etc, either in the cargo or in containers aboard the cargo hold. Drugs have also been found attached to ships below its waterline.
