Unbelievable, that family is one tragedy after another.

https://riotimesonline.com/brazil-n...olice-carrying-over-two-tons-of-cocaine/

Five Brazilians Arrested by Cape Verde Police Carrying Over two Tons of Cocaine

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7325425/Cops-seize-30-tonnes-drugs-worth-5b.html

Cops seize 30 tonnes of drugs worth $5b

https://ns55dnred.wordpress.com/2019/08/06/iran-%f0%9f%87%ae%f0%9f%87%b7-285kg-of-opium-seized-in-irans-semnan-province/

IRAN 🇮🇷: 285kg of opium seized in Iran’s Semnan province

https://www.ksl.com/article/46611432/more-than-1m-in-meth-taken-off-streets-in-2-southern-utah-busts

More than $1M in meth taken off streets in 2 southern Utah busts

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7327807/Heroin-worth-40million-hidden-towels-bathrobes.html

Hundreds of kilos of heroin worth up to £40million are found hidden under towels and bathrobes in a shipping container in one of Britain's largest drug seizures

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...s-jailed-13-years-Myanmar-drug-bust.html

Australian newspaper boss is jailed for 13 years in Myanmar after being caught red-handed with a large amount of drugs

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...-police-raid-home-finds-drugs-money.html

Bizarre moment a suspected drug dealer, 75, eats toast and drinks coffee for breakfast as officers count thousands of dollars in cash in front of him

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2019/08/new-zealand-s-big-and-bizarre-drug-busts.html

New Zealand's big and bizarre drug busts

https://www.yorkregion.com/news-sto...ime-investigations/#.XUyXK6K7z1E.twitter

50 people charged in York Region organized crime investigations

https://newyork.cbslocal.com/video/4141538-new-jersey-drug-ring-busted/

New Jersey Drug Ring Busted

https://abcnews.go.com/Internationa...rest-british-men-huge-meth-bust-64872607

New Zealand police arrest 2 British men in huge meth bust

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...e-use-submarine-16-nuclear-missiles.html

Three sailors are kicked out of the Royal Navy after they were caught doing cocaine on a submarine that carries 16 nuclear missiles

https://www.breitbart.com/border/20...ice-seize-500-pounds-of-meth-in-tijuana/

Mexican State Police Seize 500 Pounds of Meth in Tijuana

https://windsorstar.com/news/local-...olice-drug-busts-across-southern-ontario

Leamington farm raid part of large-scale police drug busts across southern Ontario

https://dailyhive.com/toronto/45-million-drugs-seized-organized-crime-busts-york-region

$45 million in drugs seized during massive organized crime busts in York Region

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12257208

A year of NZ drug busts: Cocaine at the beach, meth in golf carts, cash in dishwasher

Dutch Customs has intercepted a large batch of cocaine on the Maasvlakte this week. The public prosecutor in Rotterdam announced this on Friday afternoon. It concerns two batches with a total of 3000 kilos. 6 people were arrested.


The drug catch in a business premises in Wateringen, South-Holland at the end of February this year, was much larger than previously thought. According to the Public Prosecution Service, research shows that there were 550 kilos and possibly even 800 kilos of drugs in the building. Initially, the police reported that it involved 400 kilos of methamphetamine (crystal meth) with a street value of 80 million euros. Later that was adjusted to 352 kilos.

During the raid in February, six men were arrested by an arrest team in a building on the Schipluidenseweg in Wateringen. Five suspects (two from Spain, three from Mexico) say that they are victims of human trafficking and that they were forced to work in the drug lab. They would have been misled and believed that they were going to work in construction. The OM does not believe this.

Large quantities of drugs were seized in a coordinated action by Europol in which 16 countries participated, including the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Germany, Latvia and Italy.

A total of 1300 kilos of cocaine and more than 11 tons of raw materials to produce amphetamine. Almost 20,000 xtc pills and 6 kilos of MDMA were also seized.

344 people were arrested, Europol reports to Crimesite. The detainees are suspected of various types of drug crime, including drug trafficking and production.

In the Brazilian port city of Paranagua, 1300 kilos of cocaine was found in a load of sugar. The drugs were discovered by a drug dog.

According to local media, the cargo of sugar was destined for Rotterdam.

A month ago, 165 kilos of coke was discovered in Paranagua hidden in a load of frozen chicken meat. That shipment was also intended for Rotterdam. In total more than 12,000 kilos of cocaine for Europe have been intercepted this year in the Brazilian port city.

I have a feeling this isn't the last time we're going to hear about the infamous 'Shorty'.

One more arrested over UK’s biggest ever drugs racket
Another suspected member of an international organised crime group responsible for importing in excess of 50 tonnes of drugs into the UK from the Netherlands has been arrested.

NCA signAnother suspected member of an international organised crime group responsible for importing in excess of 50 tonnes of drugs believed to be worth billions of pounds into the UK from the Netherlands has been arrested, as part of a National Crime Agency investigation.

A man, aged 58, was arrested today (Wednesday 30 October) in Tarporley, Cheshire, on suspicion of conspiracy to import class A and B drugs, and his house was searched. He remains in custody for questioning. The arrest comes weeks after fifteen men were apprehended during dawn raids and charged as part of the same investigation.

Jayne Lloyd, NCA Regional Head of Investigations, said: “This arrest is another significant step in our investigation and we are continuing to work with our partners at home and abroad to target organised criminals damaging our communities.”

The Dutch National Police, Europol, Eurojust, Police of Finland National Bureau of Investigation, Border Force, HMRC and numerous police forces have also supported the NCA with the investigation.

The group is believed to be part of the UK arm of a well-established organised crime group that used Dutch and British front companies to import heroin, cocaine and cannabis – secreted within lorry loads of vegetables and juice – through UK ports over an 18-month period.

Four men and two women from the Netherlands were also arrested in April 2019 by the Dutch National Police on European Arrest Warrants. They are currently awaiting extradition to the UK.

30 October 2019

https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/news/one-more-arrested-over-uk-s-biggest-ever-drugs-racket

Dutch customs says they have intercepted 1,008 kilos of cocaine in the port of Vlissingen. The shipment was caught on Wednesday last week, but has been kept quiet until Wednesday.

The catch is said to have been done by odor dogs that controlled a load of boxes of bananas. The coke came from a ship that had arrived from Ecuador. The batch of bananas was addressed to a company in Heerhugowaard. According to Customs, that company has nothing to do with smuggling.

Customs says that the cocaine has a value of at least 35 million euros. The drugs have been seized and destroyed. No arrests were made.

On Saturday, the customs authorities removed 660 kilos of cocaine from a container in the port of Rotterdam. The cocaine was hidden between a load of bales of coffee. The drugs with a street value of more than 26 million euros have been destroyed.

The Rotterdam police already found 300 kilos of cocaine in a delivery van on the Maasvlakte on Friday. That batch had just been removed from a container that was transported from Brazil to Rotterdam. Three men (22 to 28 years old) have been arrested.

Much more cocaine was intercepted in the port of Rotterdam in 2019 than last year: 23,000 kilos compared to 18,000 kilos in the whole of 2018.

Do you have a link to this article, Hollander? Thanks.

Just some short articles in dutch: https://www.rijnmond.nl/nieuws/188481/660-kilo-cocaine-tussen-lading-koffie-in-haven-Rotterdam

Seizures of hundreds of kilos rarely get much attention. Assuming 40 euros per gram, the batch has a street value of more than 26 million euros. But in most countries the street value is much higher after cutting.

Thanks, man. I agree, much much higher in other countries.

How cocaine floods Europe by tons
The drug is now coming to Europe in hundreds of pounds, hidden in containers on cargo ships, with the complicity of sailors. From our correspondent in Geneva, Ian Hamel
Published on 14/11/2019 at 13:11 | The Point.fr
Of the millions of containers passing every year in the major European ports, only a few are actually controlled.

Drug traffickers may have taken the slogan of the Geneva-based company Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC). The world leader in container transport assures you that "your cargo is always in good hands". On June 17, 2019, US Customs seized 19.76 tons of cocaine aboard the MSC Gayane , a 314 meter long freighter. Or a loot of 1.3 billion dollars! The commander was able to leave again and MSC is in no way involved in this traffic destined for Europe . The drug was brought at night off Peru . With the complicity of six crew members, including the ship's second, cocaine packets were camouflaged in seven containers of wine, nuts, and electronic waste.

US customs officials had already discovered 537 kilos of cocaine on the MSC Desiree in March 2019, and the Spaniards, 2.2 tons on the MSC Carlotta , the following month. If the traffickers choose Mediterranean Shipping Company, it is because the Swiss giant is the most active on the sea routes between South America and Europe. The Tribune de Genève, who tells in detail this new artery of the coke, reveals that one of the involved sailors recognized to have perceived 50 000 dollars for his participation. In the ports of Antwerp, Rotterdam, Valencia, the driver of a forklift can earn 25,000 to 75,000 euros just by helping, for a few tens of minutes, the landing of cocaine, contained in 50 kilos bags. The risk is minimal. Of the millions of containers passing each year in major European ports, only a few are actually controlled.

A chain of accomplices
It is still unclear what boats were able to drop the bales of cocaine that have been stranded on the French Atlantic coast since mid-October. But shipowners are not likely to be responsible for this traffic. They do not watch at night when some of their sailors, modestly paid, open containers of "legitimate goods", containing fish, fruit or wood, to slide in the middle, up to 50 bags of 50 kilos of cocaine. The operation is then camouflaged thanks to false seals placed on the containers. This is called the rip-off methodwhich can be translated as "tear off" or "rip off". A system that "requires an elaborate chain of accomplices in ports: sailors, dockers, customs, logistic companies: everyone is subject to the temptation to earn tens of thousands of euros to get the right container," says Sylvain Besson, from the inquiry cell of the Swiss press group Tamedia, a partner of the European Investigative Collaborations network.

On the other hand, the "big heads" of the traffic, understand the cartels of drug traffickers, the producers, the wholesalers, and even the semi-wholesalers, are only rarely caught. The market has become so juicy (300 billion turnover per year) that South American traffickers, who ship five containers in Europe, can afford to have one or even two confiscated ... So do not To rejoice in the record drug seizures that are multiplying. The "business" has nothing to do with the use of "mules", poor poor people who landed in European airports with a few hundred grams of cocaine in the stomach. At the risk of leaving their skin there.

600 to 700 tonnes for Europe
On May 6, Switzerland made its biggest catch: 600 kilos intercepted in the car park of the casino of Basel. Pierre Esselva, a criminologist at the University of Lausanne, a specialist in the cocaine market, points out that the big heads of trafficking in Europe are in Holland. "But the people who deliver Switzerland are not big heads, and the Dutch police are not interested in them. The market here was traditionally run by West Africans and Latin Americans, who serve a festive clientele, "he explains in La Tribune de Genève . Of the 2,000 tonnes of "white" produced each year in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, 600 to 700 tonnes are destined for the European market.

https://www.lepoint.fr/monde/comment-la-cocaine-inonde-l-europe-par-tonnes-14-11-2019-2347433_24.php

i read that the worldwide production of coke was about 900 tonnes in 2014 (peru the biggest producer with about 350 tonnes), is it really 2000 nowadays in just 5 years?

The French are puzzled: the Atlantic coast flooded with cocaine packages
The French have a very special environmental problem: the washing up of packages filled with cocaine along the Atlantic coast. Since mid-October more than 700 kilos of the white stuff has been found. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) has launched an investigation and warns against the packages. A number of beaches have already been closed to the public, French media report.

The packages can pose a public health hazard because they contain cocaine with a purity of 83 percent, said the OM in Rennes (Brittany) this afternoon. In addition to cocaine, the packages also contain crack, a smokable variant of cocaine. Finders must immediately alert the police. He urges them not to touch the drugs. Both the contents and the packaging can be hazardous to health, partly due to 'fumes'. Transporting the packages is punishable. Drug smuggling has a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.

The first bales of plastic packages were washed up on 17 October, but the number has been increasing since 4 November, the authorities note. The counter is now at 763 kilos. The phenomenon is so great that 'intensive surveillance' has been announced by police and customs, among others. A large number of beaches are already closed to the public. This was ordered by the police and on pain of severe criminal sanctions.

According to the OM, the entire Atlantic coast is struggling with the problem. From Les Landes at the Spanish border to the mouth of the Loire River above Nantes. In the latter region, 10 kilos of cocaine were found this morning at Pornic, not far from Saint-Nazaire. More than 400 kilometers south of Arcachon, packages containing 12 kilos of white gold were discovered. The OM in Rennes therefore works closely with the public prosecutors of Saint-Nazaire, Bordeaux and Dax.

The French authorities suspect that the bales of drugs have been thrown overboard from a ship during a storm or damage. According to the French police, she works closely with colleagues in other EU countries and with the American drug control organization DEA.