Last Tuesday, the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee arrested a 36-year-old man from Amstelveen on suspicion of large-scale cocaine smuggling and trafficking. The South American merchandise entered the country via the port of Rotterdam and via Schiphol.
The Amstelvener is suspected of possessing hard drugs between 2019 and 2021 and also trafficking them.
The Marechaussee detective team tracked down the man a few years ago, after the police had succeeded in cracking SKY ECC. For a long time it was possible to send encrypted messages via that app, which made it an attractive service for criminals.
The SKY ECC messages would show that it concerns a total of hundreds of kilos of cocaine, which were transported to Europe not only by sea, but also by air.
To make the smuggling possible, several legal companies at home and abroad were used. The criminal investigation department of the Marechaussee continues the investigation, and does not rule out more arrests.
Drugs intercepted at Schiphol
In total was last year about 7,500 kilos of drugs were intercepted at Schiphol, as it turned out at the beginning of this year. Shortly before, another shipment of drugs had been intercepted hidden in peanut butter jars.
With 1,295 kilos intercepted, cocaine was the third most found type of drug at Schiphol in 2022 after khat (3,265 kilos) and marijuana (1,584 kilos). In 2021 – the year in which the suspect allegedly smuggled drugs through Schiphol – that was much more: 2,317 kilos.
Less cocaine was found in 2022, but more marijuana, Henriette Bongers, director of Customs Schiphol Cargo, told NH Nieuws.