In the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp, all containers with tropical fruit arriving there must from now on be checked for drugs. That is one of the recommendations from the letter that Rotterdam mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb and his Antwerp colleague Bart De Wever sent to Prime Minister Mark Rutte (VVD) and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo on Sunday.
The letter follows a working visit by Aboutaleb and De Wever to Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica. These are important source and transit countries for cocaine smuggling. In the current affairs program the seventh day of the Flemish broadcaster VRT told Aboutaleb on Sunday that tropical fruit is often used as a “camouflage” in drug smuggling. Now only “a few percent” of the fruit containers are checked, he said. So that has to be 100 percent.
In their letter, the mayors make even more recommendations for tackling drug problems. In combating this problem, for example, there should be more cooperation with the countries from which the drugs come, capacity should be made available in the police and the judiciary to investigate fraudulent money flows, and the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp should be more secure. including through the use of artificial intelligence.
The supply of cocaine to the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam has grown considerably in recent years. Last year, a record amount of 90,000 kilos of cocaine was seized in Antwerp and 70,000 kilos of cocaine in Rotterdam. Research by the Erasmus University from 2019 shows that both ports form one work area for criminal organizations.