Latest update March 7th, 2025 7:05 AM
Belgium tracks, seizes 11.5 tonnes of coke from Guyana – local shipper of scrap iron, mother arrested
Belgian prosecutors said that the drugs were seized at the Port of Antwerp.
Kaieteur News – Belgian prosecutors have dealt a new blow to a recently disbanded drug gang led by a former Belgian police chief as they announced the largest-ever drug bust shipment “in the world”, after finding 11.5 tonnes of cocaine in a scrap metal shipment from Guyana.
Here, head of Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit, James Singh, disclosed that two persons have been detained, the shipper of the containers, and his mother. Local investigators are trying to determine if the containers seized in Belgium are the same ones that left Guyana. They are collaborating with the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Belgian authorities.
According to the story in the Brussel Times, counter-narcotics prosecutors said they had tracked the trans-Atlantic journey of the cocaine from Guyana, and seized it upon its arrival at the Port of Antwerp.
Belgian authorities said that they found a metal container with the drugs within the container.
The catch is “the largest overseas drug bust ever, worldwide,” federal prosecutors told Belgian media, estimating the street value of the drug load at €900 million. The massive load of cocaine left a port in Guyana on late October and prosecutors were able to track, following the dismantlement of a drug trafficking gang led by a former Belgian counter-narcotics chief which revealed the existence of tight-knit links between criminal gangs and counter-narcotics and law enforcement officials.
Three police officers, a port manager and a lawyer were among some 20 other criminals arrested as part of the operation targeting the “well-structured” criminal organisation suspected of orchestrating large and “regular” drug shipments from South America to Belgium.
The record-breaking shipment was expected by law enforcement officials as it is suspected it left the port of Guyana after the drug gang’s arrest in Belgium, with drug gangs unable to intercept it once at sea, De Standaard reports.
It was disguised as scrap metal and placed inside a steel container which was in turn packed into a sea container and loaded into a transatlantic vessel. The dismantlement of the drug gang in late September led to the arrest and indictment of 22 people, with three people still in the Netherlands awaiting extradition. Following the bust on Wednesday, three others were arrested, including one person who is facing extradition to Belgium from the Netherlands.
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