2023-12-27 18:51:00
The first theory that the investigators thought of was that of stowaways who would have taken refuge in the container to flee their country and return to Europe illegally. But after verification, it seems that the six men arrested (aged around twenty years) are not in an irregular situation. These would be Dutch people linked to drug trafficking networks. The six young men were presented on Tuesday to the investigating judge in Dendermonde who decided to keep them in detention.
The six individuals had in fact voluntarily locked themselves in this container with the aim of gaining access to other containers where cocaine had initially been hidden and then recovering it.
This process has a name in networks: the “Trojan Horse” technique.
After a record seizure of 110 tonnes of cocaine in 2022, the government wants to intensify its fight against drug trafficking
Equipped places
The process is as follows. Individuals lock themselves in a container registered as having to be transported empty to ports. Since it is empty, no control is provided.
Except that it is precisely these containers that are chosen by certain individuals to enter ports without the risk of being intercepted. Once they arrive at the destination port, the individuals come out of their hiding place and recover the drugs hidden in other containers. They then leave, by car or on foot, quietly the premises with their merchandise to pass it on to accomplices outside.
The “stay” in these containers can be long, which is why minimal accommodation is planned. Makeshift bed, small toilet area, food and drink for a few days and even a game of cards to kill time.
In June, the Antwerp police discovered a container thus equipped and used as a Trojan horse. Twelve people – including a minor – were also arrested. At the end of May, six other people, including a minor, were also arrested for the same acts. Here too, each time, they were people of Dutch nationality and linked to drug trafficking.
“Drug, arms and cigarette traffickers cross paths if there are common interests. Otherwise, it’s each their own specialty”
Complicated monitoring
Europol has already highlighted, on numerous occasions, the ingenuity of drug traffickers in the ways they transport their goods from South America to European ports. In a report published in April, Europol specifies that the Trojan Horse technique is increasingly popular at the port of Antwerp, whose immense size (129 km2) makes surveillance very complicated.
However, seizures are becoming more and more common in the industry. Proof that the authorities are taking action against these criminal networks. But the quantities intercepted would only be a tiny part of the drugs in circulation.
According to data provided by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), almost 2,000 tonnes of cocaine are produced each year, including more than 600 tonnes destined for European markets. Drugs which transit mainly through Rotterdam and Antwerp. In 2022, more than 110 tonnes had been intercepted by Belgian customs officers. A record for the authorities, but a very meager figure compared to the quantities which still escape controls.
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