Record Cocaine Haul Seized In Rotterdam

Dutch customs made the largest-ever drug seizure in Rotterdam port this month, after discovering over eight tonnes of cocaine aboard a Maersk ship in a container.

The drugs, which came from Ecuador and arrived at the Dutch port via Panama, are reported to hold an enormous street value of around £512m.

The bust was originally made earlier this month, but Dutch customs held back information about the ship and carrier.

8,064 packages of cocaine, weighing one kilo each, were discovered amongst 12 pallets of bananas during a check with drug detection dogs and following a container scan.

This seizure dwarfed the previous Dutch record bust of 3.8 tonnes of cocaine in 2021 follows a 3 tonne haul that was discovered two months ago at the port. In the first six months of this year, the Netherlands has now seized 29.7 tons of cocaine.

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