The strategic location of the Netherlands in Europe, its long tradition of trade and a well-functioning infrastructure make the country a perfect hub for drug transactions.

Add to that relatively low penalties for smugglers and manufacturers.

Tens of thousands of containers arrive at the port of Rotterdam every day.

In some of them drugs are smuggled, mainly cocaine.

In recent years, seizures in the port have increased significantly and in 2021, almost 73 tons of cocaine were found with a street value in Sweden of SEK 65 billion.

But since the cocaine is rarely one hundred percent pure when it reaches the end customer, the figure is probably much higher.

More seizures or more drugs?

The authorities do not know why cocaine seizures are increasing.

But either it is because the police and customs have become better at finding the drugs or it is because larger quantities enter the port.

Liselotte Bisschop at Erasmus University in Rotterdam has researched how the drugs get in and out of the port and she sees corruption as a big problem.

- It usually happens with help from the inside.

Either an employee from a private or a public company helps with the smuggling, she says.

Cat and mouse game

The wealth of invention among the smugglers is great and Bisschop says that the drugs are hidden in everything from fruit deliveries to refrigeration units.

They are even built into the walls of containers.

The president of the police union, Jan Struijs, describes it as a game of cat and mouse.

- About a month ago, we found a lot of jeans that had been impregnated with cocaine.

The jeans are sent to a "laundry" where the cocaine is separated from the jeans.

Then they sell both the cocaine and the jeans, says Jan Struijs.

Largest exporter of synthetic drugs

While the Netherlands is fighting against the importation of drugs, the country is also a major exporter of synthetic drugs.

A police report from 2017 shows that synthetic drugs with a street value of over SEK 200 billion were manufactured in the Netherlands.

Most of it was exported.