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 was arrested in connection with the record receipt, officials announced Wednesday.
The coke was found on February 12 during a search of five containers from Paraguay that were identified as suspicious in a risk analysis by several European customs authorities, the customs office in Hamburg said.
They had discovered “obvious irregularities” in three containers, which were loaded with putty in cans, but were found to contain other items as well, officials said, who found the drug in more than 1,700 cans.
About 17.6 tons of cocaine were found by authorities in the German port of Hamburg, while customs in Antwerp, Belgium, seized nearly 8 tons.
Referring to the total catch, which was destined for the Netherlands, the Dutch prosecutor’s office said that “never before has so much cocaine been intercepted” in a single operation.
A 28-year-old Dutchman who owns an import company in Rotterdam was arrested on Wednesday when police in the Netherlands searched two locations: one in the port city and another in a nearby village.
“The mega shipments to the Netherlands seized together form an absolute record. Never before has so much cocaine been intercepted at once ”, the Dutch police said in a statement.
“The find is among the top five in the world,” Rene Matschke, head of the Hamburg customs office, told Agence France-Presse.
With pole wires