In the fight against increasingly powerful drug gangs, the Netherlands and Belgium call on container shipping companies in the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp. For example, they must improve the security of containers and help to track them in order to intercept contraband. Ministers of both countries will sign a series of agreements with the five most important shipowners on Friday.
Drug smuggling in Europe’s two main ports is on the rise and the gangs are becoming increasingly brutal and violent. A drug war has been raging in Antwerp for months, which killed an 11-year-old girl last month. Politicians such as the Belgian minister of justice Van Quickenborne and his Dutch former colleague Grapperhaus are under serious threat. According to responsible European Commissioner Johansson, the drug mafia poses as much danger as terrorism.
The government cannot manage alone to subdue the mighty billion-dollar industry, according to the Dutch and Belgian governments. Container carriers must take responsibility and do more. Otherwise, they may eventually be denied access to ports.
Ministers Yesilgöz (Justice) and Harbers (Infrastructure) and State Secretary De Vries (Customs) and their Belgian colleagues agreed with the shipowners on Friday, among other things, that those containers will eventually be provided with a digital seal, which will set off an alarm if it is en route is broken. This should make it impossible to hide cocaine between a load of bananas on the way from South America to Rotterdam or Antwerp, for example. Whoever comes to collect a container must identify himself with a fingerprint. It cannot be secretly played or cracked, like the pin codes that are now sometimes used. In addition, port staff must be better investigated, shipowners must help to track containers on their journey around the world and they must share more information to recognize suspicious patterns.
The agreement with the four world-leading shipping companies MSC, Maersk, CMA CGM and HAPAG Lloyd and the large Dutch refrigerated shipping company Seatrade will be signed in Antwerp on Friday afternoon. The intention is to make agreements with the port terminals at a later date.
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