German and Belgian authorities have seized more than 25 tons of cocaine worth about $ 730 million on the street and the owner of a Dutch import company was arrested in connection with the historic search, officials announced Wednesday. .
Coca-Cola was found Feb. 12 in a search of five containers from Paraguay that several European customs authorities had identified as suspects in a risk analysis, the Hamburg customs office said.
They had detected “clear irregularities” in three containers, loaded with putty in the tin cans, but which appeared to contain other items, officials said, which found the drug in more than 1,700 cans.
Authorities at the German port of Hamburg found about 17.6 tonnes of cocaine, while customs officials in Antwerp, Belgium, confiscated almost eight.
Referring to the general catch, aimed at the Netherlands, the Dutch national prosecutor’s office said that “never before had so much cocaine been intercepted” in a single operation.
A 28-year-old Dutchman who owns an import company in Rotterdam was arrested on Wednesday while Dutch police searched two places: one in the port city and another in a nearby village.
“Mega shipments confiscated in the Netherlands form an absolute record. Never before had so much cocaine been intercepted at once, “Dutch police said in a statement.
“The find counts among the top five in the world,” Hamburg customs chief Rene Matschke told Agence France-Presse.
With publishing cables