116 tonnes of cocaine seized in Antwerp

Belgian officials say they found the most cocaine ever at the port of Antwerp last year.

The city by the port has become the main way drugs from South America get into Europe.

Belgian Finance Minister Vincent Van Peteghem said that 116 tons of cocaine were caught in Antwerp, which is 5% more than the previous year.

Only a little bit of the drug, maybe about one-tenth, is actually found when it arrives at the port.

Customs officers told the media that they think they can never beat the strong drug gangs.

Rising violence is happening in Belgium because gangs are competing for control of the profitable illegal cocaine trade.

“Mr Van Peteghem said that these amounts are very dangerous for the safety of our ports, cities, customs and dock workers, and our families. ”

When you drive around the big port in Antwerp, you can see why the cocaine gangs want to use it as their main place for bringing drugs into the country. It’s a big problem for the authorities to stop them.

There are 160km (100 miles) of space along the water where lots of stuff from ships gets taken off and sent to different parts of the continent.

It’s a fast-moving belt that carries goods that can go bad quickly and gives a big chance for the people who sell cocaine. Hiding drugs in fresh fruit crates, especially banana containers, is still a popular strategy.

Last year, the BBC looked into how Antwerp became Europe’s biggest place to bring drugs into the country. Customs officials found out that gangs expected some of their drug shipments to be found and planned for it.

However, the money made is very large.

The Belgian authorities caught over 100 tonnes of drugs at the port for the first time in 2022.

Belgium’s neighbor to the north, the Netherlands, has also found a lot more cocaine, 59. 1 tons in 2023. This makes it even more of a place where cocaine is sent to other parts of Europe, like the UK.

In the Netherlands, most of the cocaine seized came from Ecuador, about 27 tons.

Panama and Colombia are important places where things come from, mostly to Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain.

Police in Europe are teaming up to fight criminal gangs. They mention recent achievements, such as when they were able to break into a secure platform called EncroChat that is used by trafficking networks.

On Tuesday night, the police arrested 22 people for drugs in Belgium. Among them were three police officers.

Many searches were done in Brussels and Antwerp. The police found cash, expensive cars, and a weapon.

Antwerp has had a lot of fighting and violence in the past few years, with gangs fighting each other on the city’s streets.

Several attacks have hit the wrong places, and in January 2023, an 11-year-old girl was killed in a criminal attack.

Lately, there has been more fights and crimes related to drugs moving into the southern part of Brussels from the port.

Gangs shoot at their enemy’s homes to try and get the police to come and stop drug deals happening there. They don’t always want to hurt anyone, just to get attention.

Top European officials say that organized crime is just as bad as terrorism because it causes a lot of violence and trouble.

Former Belgian Minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne had to go to a secret place because the police found out that some criminals from the Netherlands were planning to kidnap him.

The Dutch acting Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, has been given extra protection because the police are worried that a drug gang might try to harm him.

Belgium is having a big trial with over 120 people on trial for doing drugs.