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© Dmitrii Melnikov |

Stepped-up law enforcement in north European ports appears to be having an effect, with Dutch authorities reporting reduced volumes of cocaine found at the port of Rotterdam.

Some 26 tonnes of cocaine were seized in 2024, with a total value of €917m ($954m), compared with 45.5 tonnes in 2023, making this the third annual decrease in a row.

In parallel, Belgium’s customs agency claimed this month to have seized 44 tonnes last year, compared with a record 116 tonnes the year before, the first reduction since 2013.

The news follows the high-profile break-up of a Germany-based drug smuggling ring by Europol last summer, with some 35 tonnes seized.

However, authorities are not ruling out the possibility that smugglers are maintaining their usual levels of activity, merely altering their routes.

Dutch Customs noted that seizures in Vlissingen, south of the port, had crept up to 12.6m tonnes from 11.3m in the year before. And Mariette Bode, chief public prosecutor of the Zeeland-West-Brabant region, told AFP a tendency for large single drug hauls had given way to smaller amounts found in a larger number of containers, implying that smugglers were taking an ‘eggs in many baskets’ approach.

“There has been a significant increase in smaller amounts of illegal drugs through the Rotterdam harbour,” said Ms Bode. “One of the reasons could be that criminals are now spreading the risk.”

In some cases, the value of drug seizures is calculated according to the ‘street price’, finding the value of tonnes of the drug by multiplying typical gram and ounce purchases. However, this can differ wildly from the wholesale value – what traffickers are actually liable to make.

Last year, a spate of cocaine shipments hidden in crates of bananas were discovered by staff at grocery stores throughout Europe. These had been handled by North European ports.

The port of Rotterdam is phasing-out pin-based container retrieval systems in favour of Secure Chain, which is based on a digital passport system, permitting only specific hauliers, barge and rail operators access to shipments. The system was introduced first for Latin America, then North America, then Africa, the Middle East, India, and Pakistan. As of September, some 500,000 containers had been handled via the Secure Chain system.

But this will do little to address the phenomenon of ‘extractors,’ many of them teenagers, who circumvent port security to break into containers and snatch shipments smuggled within. Some 266 extractors were arrested at Rotterdam in 2024, 59 of them minors, Ms Bode said.

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