China News Service, The Hague, January 10. The Dutch authorities announced on the 10th that in 2021, the port of Rotterdam, the largest port in Europe, will seize more than 70 tons of cocaine. record".
According to the announcement issued by the Netherlands Public Prosecutor's Office on the same day, in 2021, the anti-drug team jointly established by the Dutch Customs, Taxation, Coast Guard and Rotterdam Public Prosecutor's Office seized a total of 72.8 tons of cocaine, of which 70.6 tons of cocaine were seized in the Port of Rotterdam to assist the Netherlands Elsewhere, 2.2 tons of cocaine were seized.
Statistics show that in 2020, more than 40 tons of cocaine were seized in the port of Rotterdam, which was a "new high" in the port of Rotterdam at that time; compared with that, the cocaine seized in the port of Rotterdam in 2021 not only increased by 74%, but also broke the "record" of the port of Rotterdam again.
For each month of 2021, the announcement stated that April 2021 was the "busiest", and the anti-drug team dispatched 22 times in that month; in December 2021, the "most", on December 30, the anti-drug team was in a refrigerated container loaded with bananas in the Port of Rotterdam in one fell swoop. 4.18 tons of cocaine were seized.
In addition, with the assistance of international partners, the anti-drug team seized 1 ton of the powerful hallucinogen dimethyltryptamine in February 2021; with the assistance of the British anti-drug department, the anti-drug team seized more than 1.5 tons in a container in 2021 Heroin, the largest amount of heroin seized in the Netherlands to date.
As the largest port in Europe today, the Port of Rotterdam is not only a major global logistics hub, but also "favored" by drug gangs. Drugs imported from Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and other countries in South America often "circulate" in the port; according to the Dutch Public Prosecutor The official's office previously informed that the 4.18 tons of cocaine seized by the anti-drug team on December 30 came from Ecuador.
Regarding the anti-drug work in 2022, the announcement stated that it would be happy to see the newly appointed Dutch government allocate more funds to intensify efforts to crack down on drug gang networks. At the same time, it said that "it is certain that if there is no internal and external collusion, criminals have nothing to worry about", so In 2022, the Dutch public prosecutor's office will step up its anti-corruption drive to prevent drug traffickers from corrupting port officials and staff.
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