Before more than a ton of cocaine between cocoa beans entered the port of Amsterdam this summer, images of port systems and work schedules were shared via encrypted messages. That says the Public Prosecution Service today in an interim session. The four North Holland suspects, including a port employee, will remain in custody for at least three months.
The police intercepted a 1,122 kilo load of cocaine in a truck in mid-July full of cocoa beans, who had left just before that from the Amsterdam Westelijk Havengebied. The cargo originally comes from South American Ecuador.
That day, four men are arrested, all of whom have now come to trial in an interim hearing. One of them is Alkmaarder AS (29). At the time of the arrest, he works in the office for a Zaan transport company, including a container terminal in Amsterdam.
Photos of his work schedule would have been circulated among the suspects in the weeks before the container with coke from Rotterdam entered the Amsterdam port via crypto telephone service Sky ECC, the Public Prosecution Service said today.
Print screens would also have been circulated with information about digital systems of the port of Rotterdam, certain things have been removed from port systems and there would have been contact between the suspects about a truck.
West Frisian truck driver
This was probably about the intercepted truck, containing 363 bags of cocoa beans. It was controlled on 14 July by J. van C. from Enkhuizen (55). According to sources surrounding the investigation, he would have received a request ‘to pick up something and take it somewhere’.
The man, who was not at the hearing today because, according to his lawyer, his health is ailing, denies having known that it was more than a ton of coke.
“Other players knew much more than my client,” said lawyer Elwin Boskma. Those ‘other players’ are – in addition to the Alkmaarder – IZ from Amsterdam (43) and KK from Purmerend (27).
K. is said to be a former employee of the Zaanse transport company and is therefore an ex-colleague of AS from Alkmaar. It is possible that the Purmerender and Amsterdammer drove behind the truck in a vehicle that day in July.
These men were also not present at the hearing today and are now silent about the coke transport, which comes from Ecuador in South America and came to the Netherlands via Colombia.
‘Possibly new explanations’
In the previous session with the denying Alkmaar port employee, his lawyer Vito Shukrula submitted a request for suspension of the pre-trial detention. “I miss my girlfriend and my daughter,” AS said two weeks ago. The judge did not agree.
The Alkmaarder will remain detained until at least January. Shukrula will, however, hear from the co-defendants before then about the role of his client S. Possibly more statements will be made by AS and IZ later on.
It is not yet clear who the coke was intended for. However, the investigation into the transport has been completed. The next interim hearing will be held in January: more information may be known about the date for a substantive hearing by then.