International fight against organized crime stepped up | News item

News item | 28-09-2023 | 4:00 pm

“International drug crime continuously shifts smuggling routes and invents new money laundering schemes worldwide. Organized crime works ruthlessly in this regard. Narcoterrorism, through intimidation and brutal violence, threatens the freedom and security of all of us in the world. Only by working more with other countries can we further tackle and destroy these internationally operating criminal networks,” said Minister Yeşilgöz-Zegerius.

Cooperation with Latin American countries and the Caribbean region is especially necessary in the fight against international drug crime. The focus is on strengthening cooperation between European investigation and control services, such as the police, the Public Prosecution Service and Customs, and those with so-called source and transit countries in the drug trade. In this way, international criminal networks can be dismantled more quickly and the export and transit of drugs can be tackled at the source, before they reach Europe.

Colombia extradition treaty in the making

For example, Minister Yeşilgöz-Zegerius is speaking separately today with her counterparts from Ecuador, Peru and Colombia. It is expected that an official agreement will soon be reached with the latter country on a bilateral extradition treaty and a legal assistance treaty is also in the making between the Netherlands and Colombia. More than a year ago, the Minister of Justice and Security visited Colombia to strengthen ties.

Peru, like Colombia, is a cocaine production country and Ecuador is increasingly used as a transit country to get the drugs to Europe and elsewhere in the world. Large loads of cocaine from Ecuador were recently seized by Customs and investigation services in the ports of Rotterdam, Antwerp and also in Spain. Precisely by strengthening cooperation with Latin American and Caribbean countries, drugs can be stopped more often before they reach Europe. Further agreements have been made on this in a joint statement signed today, which will enable services in the EU and Latin America to find each other better and work together more efficiently.

More of a single front

At the initiative of Minister Yeşilgöz-Zegerius, the so-called 6-country coalition was concluded last October between Belgium, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Criminals earn enormous profits from the sale of drugs, for which the legal infrastructure is abused and the criminal profits thus obtained are channeled through underground banking. To tackle this better internationally, we are now working on strengthened EU legislation and cooperation agreements, for example in the field of trading in cryptos and combating abuse of our legal infrastructure such as seaports, airports and postal and parcel services.

Criminals always look for the path of least resistance. At the beginning of this year, the Netherlands and Belgium also made agreements with shipowners to jointly tackle drug crime better in the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp, which are seen as one operating area for organized crime. According to Minister Yeşilgöz-Zegerius, it would be even better if there were uniform EU-wide standards for port security measures and goods control. And ultimately it is important to form a global front, for example by using existing regulations to tackle the terrorist threat in the fight against organized crime worldwide.

“The danger of serious and ruthless organized crime for our constitutional state is now comparable to that of terrorism. This concerns narcoterrorism, where fear is deliberately sown: with explosives in residential areas and, for example, by filming and distributing footage immediately after the assassination attempt on Peter R. de Vries. This is a fight against criminal forces that threaten our free society and European values,” said Minister Yeşilgöz-Zegerius.