Belgium and the Netherlands jointly intercept 160 tonnes of cocaine

The Belgian Deputy Prime Minister, Van Peteghem, and Dutch State Secretary for Benefits and Customs, Aukje de Vries, confirmed the result on January 11.

International drug trafficking and related criminal organisations regularly choose the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp for their illegal activities. Both ports are centrally located in north-western Europe and also have a long tradition with transport lines from South America due to their international appeal.

Customs services in Belgium and the Netherlands are cooperating intensively in the fight against international drug trafficking. For example, Belgian customs intercepted just under 110 tonnes of cocaine at the port of Antwerp and Dutch customs in turn intercepted 50 tonnes of cocaine at the port of Rotterdam.

Both countries will continue to invest in strong customs in the coming years. For Belgium, this includes the recruitment of 108 new staff at the port of Antwerp, the purchase of new scanning equipment and the further roll-out of the 100 per cent risk scanning project. For the Netherlands, investments in the coming years will include artificial intelligence, chemical detection, container tracking and the creation of technical barriers.

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