Icon: enlarge
Seized cocaine
Photo: Hamburg Customs Investigation Office
Customs found the largest amount of cocaine in the port of Hamburg that has ever been confiscated in Europe.
In total, more than 16 tons of cocaine had been discovered in five containers from Paraguay, said the customs investigation office.
As a result of the German investigation, another seven tons of cocaine were seized in Belgium.
According to the investigators, the street sales value of the drug is several billion euros.
A 28-year-old man was arrested in the Netherlands in the morning in connection with the case.
The man is suspected of being responsible for importing more than 23 tons of cocaine.
According to SPIEGEL information, the arrested person is Atif S., head of a logistics company in the country.
According to customs, the containers were classified as suspicious based on a risk analysis carried out by several European customs authorities.
In a container testing facility in the port of Hamburg, significant irregularities were found in containers loaded with filler in tin cans.
Upon closer inspection, more than nine kilograms of cocaine were found in more than 1700 doses.
Icon: The mirror
bbr / cmh / rol / AFP