Authorities on Monday stated that German police had found 39 tons of cocaine, valued at over $2.78 billion, concealed amid fruits and vegetables in multiple container ships.
The largest cocaine raid in the county, according to investigators, has resulted in the arrest of seven persons.
The substance was seized last year, according to Dusseldorf prosecutors in the west, after they received a tip from Colombian law enforcement.
A further 8.8 tons of cocaine were reportedly discovered at the Dutch port of Rotterdam, roughly 3.3 tons in Colombia, and approximately 27.5 tons in the port of the northern city of Hamburg.
The suspects, who range in age from 30 to 54, are suspected of planning the cocaine smuggling and were taken into custody recently. The seven are nationals of Germany, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Morocco, Turkey, and Ukraine, according to a statement from the prosecutors. In accordance with German privacy regulations, their identities were kept secret.
According to them, a businessman from North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany established 100 mailbox businesses to give the impression that the deliveries were lawful.
“Specifically, the suspects are accused of organizing the transport of 10 sea containers with large quantities of cocaine from Latin America to Europe in the period from April to September 2023 with other as yet unknown accomplices allegedly residing in Turkey via front companies set up for this purpose,” prosecutors said in a written statement.
At a news conference in Duesseldorf, Benjamin Limbach, the state justice minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, welcomed the massive cocaine seizure. “Largest cocaine find on European soil,” he declared, according to Sky News.
“This is a blow to international organized criminality,” Limbach stated “It’s a precise punch in the jaw that hurts the drug lords.”
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser announced the seizure on Friday, but the specifics were not made public until Monday’s press conference.
Faeser claimed in a statement that “the flood of cocaine into Europe is destroying people —and generating billions in profits for the cartels,” as reported by Reuters.
Alongside the arrests and seizure, Europol recently revealed that, during the course of a year-long operation to break a significant drug smuggling network, it had detained roughly 40 people. Eight tons of cocaine were found.
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A final round of arrests on Wednesday delivered a serious blow to the cartel, whose leaders were located in Dubai and Turkey, according to the Hague-based police coordination organization.
On Thursday, Europol made public pictures and a nearly ten-minute video that showed K-9 canines and law enforcement personnel discovering bags of suspected drugs and apprehending many people.
Additionally, the footage shows authorities apprehending a boat at sea and emptying bags suspected of containing drugs from it.
