On June 16th, German prosecutors said that they had seized cocaine valued at around $2.78 billion.
German officials have made history with the seizure of cocaine worth about $2.78 billion from several cargo ships. Seven members of a smuggling network were apprehended as a result of the operation.
Prosecutors in Duesseldorf said last year that they had confiscated 34.9 tons of cocaine thanks to a tip from Colombian authorities.
The enormous haul was found in places including Rotterdam, Netherlands (8 tons), the port of Hamburg (25 tons), and Colombia (almost 3 tons), according to various reports. The drugs were found tucked in with fruits and vegetables.
According to the statement from the prosecution, throughout the last few weeks, suspects ranging in age from 30 to 54 were apprehended. Their identities could not be revealed due to German privacy rules. Their backgrounds included German, Bulgarian, Turkish, Azerbaijani, Moroccan, and Ukrainian, among others.
The scheme revolved around a North Rhine-Westphalia businessman. The businessman reportedly used over a hundred front firms to make these illegal shipments seem more legitimate.
In a written statement, prosecutors stated that the suspects are accused of coordinating the shipment of ten sea containers containing substantial amounts of cocaine from Central and South America to Europe between April and September 2023. They also allegedly had other, as-yet-unidentified, accomplices based in Turkey who used front companies for this purpose.
North Rhine-Westphalia’s state justice minister, Benjamin Limbach, praised the operation during a news briefing in Duesseldorf. He said that international organized crime took a big hit.
The second biggest cocaine bust in Europe’s history took place in 2021 when German and Belgian officials worked together to seize 50,700 lbs of the drug with a value in the billions of euros.
