In the first half of this year, 22 tonnes of cocaine were seized in the port of Antwerp. That is half the amount seized during the same period last year. The number of drug finds remains more or less the same. The European Drug Agency earlier warned that drug gangs are shifting their routes.
The message from customs is clear: the port of Antwerp will still be awash with cocaine in 2024. In the first six months of 2024, customs were able to intercept some 22,000 kg of cocaine spread over 62 seizures. By comparison, in the Netherlands, customs intercepted around 16,000 kg during the same period.
The volume of cocaine seizures is a lot lower than in 2023. Last year, some 44,000 kg of cocaine was seized in the first six months of the year. In 2021, customs even seized over 57,000 kg during that period.
"Last year was a year of success. You could compare it to a kind of sell-off ," explains customs chief Kristian Vanderwaeren. "Drug gangs packed their stocks off to Europe. Now they need to replenish their own stocks. Once enough cocaine is again available, I expect they will dispatch the drug to Europe in larger quantities."
Antwerp is still a major hub for cocaine imports
The number of seizures involving cocaine remains at the same level. According to the customs, this indicates that smugglers are not holding back. The port of Antwerp is still a major hub for cocaine imports.
"These are of course figures for only six months," says Vanderwaeren. "Tomorrow we may intercept a container with 10 tonnes of cocaine, and then the figures will look completely different."
Production and use on the rise
Although fewer cocaine seizures were made in Antwerp in the first months of this year, year-on-year cocaine production and use continue to rise. Vanderwaeren speaks of a ‘waterbed effect’ in Europe but also in Latin America.
"For the first time, we have intercepted large quantities of cocaine entering the port of Antwerp via Sierra Leone. So we need to look at containers arriving directly from Latin America, but also at containers routed via West Africa."
In Europe itself, Vanderwaeren has also noticed that drug gangs are choosing other routes more and more often. "There are fewer arrivals at big ports like Antwerp and Rotterdam. But if you look at Spain, you see that more seizures are being made there. German customs also made a record number of seizures last year."
New mobile scanners
During the announcement of the latest figures, 2 new mobile scanners were also shown off. Earlier this year, customs started using 3 new scanners. By the end of 2024, 9 scanners should be in use screening all high-risk containers.
These scanners will allow customs to scan containers on the quayside itself, as closely as possible to where the containers are unloaded.
"If we carry out enough scans and if there is a sufficient deterrent effect, perhaps at some point drug gangs will say that Antwerp is no longer that interesting for them," says Vanderwaeren. "Then the problem will be solved here, but not in the rest of Europe. So the EU must also make the necessary efforts to ensure that the problem here is not simply exported to Spain or Germany."