Drug gangs send young people to shipping schools

Drug gangs have repeatedly sent young people to shipping schools in recent years in an attempt to get people into important strategic positions in the port of Rotterdam for the long term.

From such a position, they could help the gangs bring shipments of drugs to the port. The seaport police confirm this after reports in the AD. The gangs are said to have enrolled at least five students at different shipping schools in recent years. This was discovered in a few cases.

Corruption by drug gangs

“These practices are not new,” says a spokesman for the Seaport Police. “drug gangs Just like regular companies, we have an HR department that looks at who and what is needed to ensure that the operation runs smoothly.” Jan Janse, head of the Rotterdam Seaport Police, said on Tuesday at the announcement of the annual figures for cocaine intercepted that gangs always have to find new solutions for the longer term. This is because the police and customs are increasingly involved in combating drug gang activities.

Janse also said that gangs almost always rely on corrupt people who work at the port or with the authorities to extract drugs from containers. A corrupt employee in a strategic position, such as a logistics planner, is of great value to a drug gang.

Corruption is often also lucrative for the employee himself. In December 2021, the Rotterdam police found more than 7,9 million euros in cash during house searches in an investigation into a corrupt port employee. In 2022, the authorities seized 46.789 kilos of cocaine, with a street value of 3,5 billion euros, in the port of Rotterdam. That was significantly less than the year before, when authorities seized 70 tons of cocaine in the port.

Source: NLTimes.com (EN)