Rotterdam Cops Seize Record Stash Of Cocaine

Officials in the port of Rotterdam have seized a record quantity of cocaine, they said in a statement late Friday, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) reported.

Photo Insert: The retail value of the seized cocaine amounted to more than 300 million euros ($352 million).

The cache of 4,022 kilos of cocaine, with a retail value of more than 300 million euros ($352 million), was found in a container, the public prosecutor's office said. The find was the largest amount ever seized in Rotterdam so far, a spokesperson told a Dutch radio station.

The container, from Surinam, which was said to have a cargo of wood, was heading to a company in Poland. Cocaine smuggling is expanding significantly, according to judicial sources. In Europe, the largest Dutch and Belgian ports are the main entry points for imports to Europe.

The drug is mostly hidden in shipping containers and collectors are supposed to pick it up at the port and remove them from the area. The Dutch public prosecutor's office said the number of criminal collectors was increasing, with 325 people arrested this year alone, up from 281 in the whole of 2020.

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