German and Belgian authorities seized more than 25 tons of cocaine with a street value of about $ 730 million – and the owner of a Dutch importing company was arrested in connection with the record transport, the authorities announced on Wednesday.
The coke was found on February 12 in a magazine of five Paraguayan containers that were flagged as suspects in a risk analysis by several European customs authorities, customs in Hamburg reported.
They detected “obvious irregularities” in three containers, loaded with canned pasta, but appeared to contain other items, officials said, who found the drug in more than 1,700 cans.
About 17.6 tons of cocaine were found by authorities at the German port in Hamburg, while customs officials in Antwerp, Belgium, seized nearly eight tons.
Referring to general transport, which was destined for Holland, the Dutch Public Prosecutor’s Office said that “never before has so much cocaine been intercepted” in a single operation.
A 28-year-old Dutchman, who owns an import company in Rotterdam, was arrested on Wednesday while Dutch police searched two locations – one in the port city and another in a nearby village.
“The mega shipments seized for the Netherlands together form an absolute record. Never before has so much cocaine been intercepted at once, ”Dutch police said in a statement.
“The discovery is among the top five in the world,” Hamburg customs chief Rene Matschke told Agence France-Presse.
Wired Poles