Antwerp, historically known as a diamond trading center, has gained a reputation as the cocaine import capital of Europe. Last year, Belgian customs officers intercepted a record 256,000 pounds of cocaine there, according to figures published by the Belgian Finance Ministry this week.
That's more than three times the amount seized by U.S. Customs and Border officials across the United States. But officials estimate that this is only a small portion of the drugs smuggled among the 12 million containers that pass through Antwerp each year.
The head of the Belgian customs service said in an interview that particularly large seizures in the fall appeared to have sparked a backlash, along with a new problem: authorities were not always able to destroy what they confiscated before drug gangs tried to steal it again.
“Attacking the police, attacking customs, this is something you don’t see in Europe,” said Christian Vandervaeren, director general of the Belgian Customs Agency. “I was really afraid that my people would be killed if this continued.”
The Port of Antwerp is huge, covering an area roughly the size of Pittsburgh. 20,000 ships docked there last year, making it the second busiest port in Europe after Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Stijn Hoerens, a drug trade and policy researcher at the Rand Europe Corporation, said that after Dutch authorities strengthened anti-drug measures, smugglers shifted more of their operations to Antwerp.
Vandervaeren said shipments increase as the holiday season approaches, creating what he called a “white Christmas” at the port. On November 3, the same day as the customs facility was raided, authorities confiscated 16,500 pounds of cocaine hidden in banana boxes coming from Ecuador.
Confiscated cocaine shipments were piling up at customs facilities. The Dutch authorities quickly burn the seized drugs. But the Belgian government did not have the capacity to do so. Because drug gangs tend to track their shipments using digital GPS devices, they can easily locate cocaine that has not been removed from its packaging.
“The criminal organization was not afraid to come to the facility and take its cocaine, even if it meant they would kill a customs officer,” Vandervaeren said.
On that November night, some customs officials managed to barricade themselves in an office and call the police. The attackers fled, leaving behind the drugs they were supposed to have come for, before they could be arrested and before anyone was harmed.
In another recent incident, masked Belgian SWAT commandos collided with a black SUV driving near the port and arrested seven armed men. The police acted based on intelligence information indicating that the men were heading to steal the seized cocaine. As with the November 3 attack, this occurred on the same day as a major seizure, when officials intercepted “several tons” of cocaine in a shipment of soy meal from Sierra Leone.
In December, A An arson torched a customs warehouse storing confiscated cars and weapons in the south of the country, in what officials suspect was an act of retaliation for customs seizures.
After the recent attacks, the Belgian army was deployed to guard trucks and customs facilities. Vandervaeren said he's got more resources to destroy drugs as well, so he can now burn through most seizures within a day or two. Destroying a cache as large as the one intercepted in the fall remains a challenge.
Last week, the Belgian Federal Police announced that they had raided 45 properties and arrested 22 people, including three police officers, in connection with the drug trade.
The seizures and arrests do not appear to have disrupted the business model of criminal gangs. Street cocaine prices have remained fairly stable over the past few years, even as quality has increased, said Horence, the drug trade expert. He added that production is increasing in Latin America and that drug gangs are becoming more sophisticated, integrating with European crime gangs and building their own facilities in Europe to process drugs.
According to Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency, Ecuador and its main port of Guayaquil are the largest sources of cocaine bound for Europe, reflecting how Mexican and Albanian gangs infiltrate the country. This month, Ecuador's president declared a “state of war” against drug cartels, after a series of assassinations, prison breaks and bombings there.
In export countries, gangs bribe or blackmail port workers to allow them to hide cocaine among legal shipments. Smugglers prefer containers full of perishable goods, such as fruit and fish, which increases pressure on port workers and customs to move containers quickly, Horence said. Sometimes drugs are packaged in a duffel bag that is thrown into a random container. Sometimes the methods are more complex.
Belgian authorities found a quantity of cocaine packed in hollow tree trunks and pineapples. The medication can also be washed into the cloth, left to dry, and then processed back into a powder once it reaches its destination.
Customs officials use giant X-ray machines to look inside containers without opening them. But scanning more than a small percentage of the tens of thousands of containers that pass through the Port of Antwerp every day is not an option.
“There's no possible way to do that,” Horence said. “Any container that is scanned will cause a delay, and delays cost money.”
Huge quantities of drugs are fed into containers that are never inspected.
Across Europe, ports compete with each other to attract commercial shipments. Antwerp is only 40 miles from Rotterdam. Smaller ports such as Vlissingen in the Netherlands, Le Havre in France and Hamburg in Germany are keen for more business.
“If Rotterdam and Antwerp step up their game, they will look for alternative routes,” Horens said of drug traffickers.
This month, Belgium assumed the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, a position that allows the country to set the high-level agenda for part of the EU government. Increasing anti-drug cooperation between European ports is one of Belgium's main priorities during its six-month term.
Drug-related violence has erupted in recent years in both Belgium and the Netherlands. In 2021, a well-known Dutch crime reporter was murdered after helping advise a former gangster who was testifying against a drug lord. The Belgian Minister of Justice was forced into hiding in 2022 after death threats from organized crime. Last January, an 11-year-old girl was killed when she was caught in the crossfire during a gang shooting, police said at the time.
However, not everyone agrees that stricter enforcement is the way to go. The Netherlands “risks becoming a drug state” if the current global “war on drugs” policy continues rather than adopting alternatives such as decriminalization, Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema wrote in an op-ed for The Guardian this month. Politicians in the Swiss capital, Bern, are considering legalizing recreational cocaine sales.
Regardless, Vandervaeren vowed to keep pushing for more scanners and staff so he can build a “wall” in Antwerp that will be too cumbersome for drug traffickers trying to break through. His officers are already getting tips from US law enforcement agents about which ships they should take a closer look at. Officials at Latin American ports are also increasingly examining containers before they are shipped, allowing Belgian officers to look at photos and decide which ships should be inspected before they arrive.
“We will upgrade until the crab comes out of the harbor,” Vandervaeren said. “This is the only way to show criminals that the port of Antwerp is no longer the place to import drugs.”
