Our team enters the second largest port in Europe. 129 km², four times the area of Brussels-City, 12 million containers per year. The port of Antwerp has become a gateway in a few years, a real sieve for drug trafficking, according to our guide: Paul Meyer, drug trafficker for 30 years.
Today we meet a man released from prison just 3 years ago after serving a 7 year sentence. The port, he knows it inside out. “Here is the port!“, he tells us by way of introduction. “I show you. I always tell people, ‘Look at what’s written on this sign. You can’t get inside'”.
It is indeed forbidden to enter it, and yet Paul Meyer decides to take us to the unloading docks, under the gaze of a few dozen employees. “They do not care“, comments the repentant trafficker. “The people who work here make 2000 euros. Why isn’t this person calling to say there’s a strange car here? No, his phone is more important.”
A fully accessible port
On the quay, a boat coming straight from Panama, visible goods… so much useful information for traffickers. “So I go to Panama and I go to this lumber company. I buy it and ask that it be transported to me here. I put something inside the wood. Here, I don’t meet anyone, I take my wood and I leave.”
After 15 minutes, still no remark from the dockers. The 60 year old man does not hesitate to go to one of them. “It’s a sieve here“, points out Paul.”In Rotterdam it’s something else!”
For traffickers, attracting their service has become commonplace. In Antwerp, cocaine trafficking is estimated at more than 50 billion euros per year, it is a profitable activity, and a system of corruption assumed. “They are human. Everyone wants to make money. I’m not saying we’re all corrupt, but it’s hard to say no. They offer you a lot of money just to look elsewhere.“
700 million euros
It is difficult to get away from this traffic, Paul Meyer knows something about it. His group and him have earned 700 million euros. “A lot of people asked me: why don’t you stop? But I’ll tell you honestly, it’s my life… it was my life. All my friends are connected to the business that I created. Honestly, I still miss it today. I miss it everyday.”
“Do you miss it?“, we are surprised. “It’s stupid”, replies Paul Meyer. “Yes, I was wrong and the products were illegal, but it was a very good life.”
Between 2013 and 2021, the amount of cocaine seized in the port has increased fourteen times. This increase is linked to controls carried out by customs. To strengthen them, the government is planning an investment of 70 million euros. 100% of containers at risk will be scanned. 108 new customs officers and five scanners will analyze content from the main terminals.