Narcos in Rotterdam and Antwerp: young criminals in a bloody war

The ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam seized a record 160 tons of cocaine in 2022 from drug traffickers who recruit young people in schools, neighborhood squares or social networks like TikTok, and those who are caught in a bloody turf war that keeps Belgium on edge and the Netherlands.

The Dutch and Belgian authorities announced the latest figures on Tuesday, according to which, last year, the port of Antwerp intercepted 110 tons of cocaine (90 in 2021), Rotterdam almost 47 tons (72 in 2021) and the neighboring one, the Dutch de Vlissingen, kept seizures at 4 tons.

The sum is a joint record, although it is not clear why the number of seizures has dropped in Rotterdam, where controls have increased in recent years. The vast majority of cocaine arrives between shipments of fruit from South America, but also between jerky, fishmeal, blocks of wooden beams or pallet racks.

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drug trafficking “it cannot be done without help from within”regretted today the Dutch prosecutor’s office, which explained that all investigations reveal “a form of corruption” that affects employees of port companies, police and customs.

YOUNGER OFFENDERS

Young “collectors”, who extract the drug from the port, are recruited in institutes, squares or social networks such as Snapchat and TikTok, the chief prosecutor of Rotterdam, Hugo Hillenaar, told the newspaper De Telegraaf. He believes that young people between the ages of 18 and 26 are the most susceptible to the temptation to make a quick buck, although 14-year-olds were also arrested.

“They come from vulnerable families where financial problems play a role or other family members have turned to crime, but there are also young people who believe they can make a quick buck and don’t calculate the consequences”added the prosecution itself.

The collectors have an apparently simple task: enter the port and take advantage of the night to remove the drugs from the containers, in exchange for about 2,000 euros per kilo.

Last year the Netherlands detained 251 collectors, up from more than 400 in 2021, although the number appears to be rising again: Dutch authorities arrested 8 people yesterday, a minor under 17, and three today.

“The financial temptation is enormous”, alert Hillenaar, who expresses his concern about this trend of introducing younger and younger boys into crime. Therefore, he is satisfied with the record amount seized and concludes: “Every gram that does not reach the market makes me happy.”

INTERNAL WARS

In addition to dragging the youth, drug traffickers maintain a bloody territorial war that has claimed the lives of dozens of people in the last decade, and forced to reinforce the security of the heiress to the throne of the Netherlands, Amalia; Prime Minister Mark Rutte; and the Belgian Minister of Justice, Vincent van Quickenborne, among others.

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These organized crime groups are known as Mocro Mafiaare made up of Dutch, Belgian, and Moroccan or Surinamese citizens, and for a decade they have been waging a territorial war between enemy gangs that began after the disappearance of a shipment of cocaine from Antwerp.

Yesterday, an 11-year-old girl was shot dead in a house near Antwerp and was the niece of Othman el B., one of the biggest drug traffickers in Belgium, according to the Belgian newspaper Gazet van Antwerpen. The mayor of Antwerp, Bart De Wever, pointed to organized crime in the shooting and assured that “The affected family is known, there have already been incidents there before.”

“The amount of money at stake is so great that these criminals use whatever they can to save your business, including threats, intimidation, use of violence, corruption”explained to Efe the Dutch criminologist Emile W. Kolthoff, professor of criminology at the Open University of the Netherlands.

The threats to Rutte and Amalia come from a group that has its leader, Ridouan Taghi, in jail, the center of a trial for several murders. He is also suspected of being behind the 2019 murder of lawyer Derk Wiersum, who was representing a protected witness against Taghi; and last year to the reporter Pieter de Vries, a confidant of the same witness.

Violence is one of the impacts of drug trafficking that worries the authorities the most, given the increase in shootings or explosions in houses, for example.

“We are dealing with mutual enmity, intimidation, kidnapping and liquidation (…) The number of incidents with firearms is increasing. We have seized more firearms than ever before. We see that 50% of those arrested are under 23 years of age. It is important that we reverse this trend.” denounced Hillenaar.

Source: EFE