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Hamburg (dpa) - Hamburg customs investigators discovered more than 16 tons of cocaine in five containers from Paraguay.
The drug was found on February 12 under tin cans with filler, the customs investigation office announced on Wednesday.
It is the largest amount of cocaine ever seized in Europe.
This amount is also one of the largest individual seizures worldwide.
As part of the investigation, the authorities in the Belgian port of Antwerp had again seized more than 7.2 tons on Sunday.
A man from Vlaardingen near Rotterdam was arrested in the Netherlands on Wednesday morning.
The 28-year-old is suspected of being responsible for importing more than 23 tons of cocaine.
According to the customs investigation office, the enormous amount of cocaine in street sales would have brought in several billion euros.
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"With this blow against organized drug-related crime - also thanks to the exemplary cooperation with the European partner authorities - the German customs have again impressively demonstrated their clout," said the State Secretary responsible for customs in the Federal Ministry of Finance, Rolf Bösinger.
The further investigations would be carried out on behalf of the Hamburg public prosecutor and in close coordination with the Dutch colleagues by the Hamburg customs investigation office.
After a risk analysis, the customs officers brought the containers to the container inspection facility in the port of Hamburg for closer inspection.
Behind cans of real goods, the officers came across metal canisters weighing 20 kilograms, each containing eight cocaine packages weighing more than 9 kilograms.
More than 1700 cans were filled with drugs.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210224-99-572811 / 4
Press release