A truck with 800 kilos of coke was arrested in Moerdijk on Thursday. The drugs with a street value of 50 million euros were hidden among a load of vegetables.
The Belgian police tipped off their Dutch colleagues that a drug transport might be on its way. Officers saw the truck and had it stopped in Moerdijk. Where exactly has not been announced, and it is also unclear whether Moerdijk was the final destination.
A 55-year-old man from France and a 62-year-old Belgian were in the truck and they were immediately arrested. The drugs were among a load of vegetables,
Millions
The men were brought to the examining magistrate on Friday afternoon. He has decided that they will stay in jail longer. The police have not ruled out more arrests.
If you assume a wholesale value of approximately 27 thousand euros per kilo of coke, you arrive at a value of 22 million euros for this party. The street value is much higher and goes to 50 million euros.
It is the biggest find of the year in Brabant. The second largest was done at the end of March in Oosterhout, where almost 60 kilos turned up. In recent years, much less coke has been found in Brabant. It is unclear how this happens. It seems that the drugs are already being found in the ports, such as in Rotterdam where records are being broken this year, just like in Antwerp.
Task Force
The arrests were made by Fortius. This is a partnership – a task force – of the Federal Judicial Police (FGP) Antwerp, the Federal Judicial Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgium and the National Public Prosecutor’s Office and the National Unit in the Netherlands.
The task force focuses on tackling large-scale imports of cocaine via the port of Antwerp to the Netherlands. Fortius also collaborates with the Belgian and Dutch customs, the Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service, the tax authorities, the Royal Military Police and the regional units of the Dutch police. The team is still new. Just like the seaport police that has been in existence since this summer and mainly searches for drug smuggling via the seaports of Zeeland and West Brabant.