Dockworkers have spoken to VRT about their role in the flow of cocaine through the Antwerp port. "When they say you can earn 200,000 euros in five or 10 minutes, I think practically everyone gives in to that," says crane driver 'Dylan', a fictitious name.
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Antwerp port worker on drug crime: "I could earn 200,000 euros in 10 minutes"
Colin Clapson
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For several years 'Dylan' was a crane driver in the port of Antwerp, more specifically working on straddle carriers. These cranes, also known as "elephants" in Belgium, are used to sort containers on the quayside after they have been taken off a ship by an even larger crane. "Without such drivers, drug criminals are basically nowhere," says Dylan.
He knows the modus operandi in detail. "You are given the position of a drug container via a disposable phone. You then have to go and get that container so that others can empty it," he says.
These are South American containers in which cocaine is hidden. They are put in a free space next to a European container. "Free shifting", it is called. Then the South American drugs are "thrown over" into a European container.
This is usually done by other port workers, who are also paid by drug criminals to do so. "But sometimes young guys are also smuggled into the port, in the back of a van, also for this purpose. We call them kamikazes," Dylan says. The European containers are checked much less frequently and can be driven out of the port more freely.
Hundreds of thousands of euros
"This can all go very quickly but can also take a lot of time. If the drug container is at the bottom, you have to get it out. This does not go unnoticed, of course. Then there is usually someone at the planning office, who is in the business too," Dylan says.
Straddle carrier drivers are a crucial link in the drug trafficking chain. It means there is a lot of money to be made. "The first times they asked me, it was 20,000 or 25,000 euros, the last time it was already 200,000 euros and more. When they say you can make 200,000 euros in five or 10 minutes, I think practically everyone gives in to that."
When he was a crane driver, drug criminals contacted Dylan several times, often through social media. "Sometimes by colleagues, including women, from whom you really don't expect it," he says. "At one point I was in need of money and I thought: if I do it once, I'll be out of trouble. But once you've done it once, they don't let you go. Then suddenly they are there every week."