German law enforcement has just announced a record drug seizure case, with cocaine seized worth 2.6 billion euros ($2.8 billion) and 7 arrests suspected of being involved in smuggling.
Investigators seized a total of 35.5 tons of cocaine from container ships in Hamburg, Rotterdam and Colombia - RT quoted Dusseldorf prosecutors as saying on June 17. The largest arrest was in Hamburg, where police found 25 tons of drugs hidden in shipments of fruits and vegetables.
The cocaine shipments were discovered after German police were informed by Colombian authorities. Seven smuggling suspects - including citizens of Ukraine, Germany, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Morocco and Turkey - have been arrested in recent weeks.
Specifically, the suspects were charged with organizing the transportation of 10 sea containers with a large quantity of cocaine from Latin America to Europe between April and September 2023 along with other accomplices of unknown identity, the prosecutors said. The accomplices were accused of residing in Turkey.
Smuggling activities have the participation of anti-corruption companies. According to authorities, a man in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia established 100 container companies with the aim of making the shipments look legal.
The suspects, aged between 30 and 54, who were unnamed, were arrested in seven different German states. North Rhine-Westphalia Justice Minister Benjamin Limbach told reporters in Duesseldorf: "This is a heavy blow to international organized crime. It was an accurate punch that injured drug lords.
Drug searches are nearly three times as large as the arrest of cocaine worth 1 billion euros at the port of Hamburg in 2019 - at that time a record arrest for Germany.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said: "The propaganda propaganda flooding into Europe is destroying people and generating billions of dollars in profits for gangs."
