The ports in Antwerp, Belgium and several cities in The Netherlands are fighting to curb the illicit trade of cocaine, which is seeing somewhat of a heyday in recent years. Criminals are allegedly smuggling cocaine on shipping containers, often disguised as fruit or other goods.

To keep up with the extremely high demand for cocaine in Europe, ports in Belgium and The Netherlands, Europe’s “cocaine superhighway,” have stepped up security, Bloomberg reported Monday. Cocaine is the second most commonly used illicit drug in Europe (after cannabis, of course) according to the European Drug Report 2023.

Dutch authorities say they have been intercepting an increasing amount of cocaine in recent years. Seizures jumped 18% to 60,000 kilograms of cocaine in 2023 from a year earlier, according to the Netherlands’ customs data. 

According to findings published March 20 by the EU drugs agency (EMCDDA) and SCORE group, a sewage analysis spanning across Europe identified Antwerp as the cocaine capital of Europe, and it has been for several years.

Politico reports that Antwerp was once again Europe’s cocaine capital where consumption is highest per capita, according to EMCDDA’s findings, with 1,721 milligrams detected per 1,000 people per day, a slight decrease from 2022 but still enough to top the list. Five cities from the Netherlands also made it into the top 10. Three of those Dutch ports in the top 10—Amsterdam, Leeuwarden, and Rotterdam—are home to large port destinations.

Data from 2023 indicated that Antwerp set a record of 116 tons of cocaine seized, breaking the previous record of 110 set in 2022. Eight tons of the cocaine was confiscated in a single bust on a freight vessel.

“The fight against international drug trafficking requires a lot of expertise and energy from our customs,” said Vincent Van Peteghem, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance. “I can only emphasize my great thanks and pride for that. Especially since this fight is just one of the many components of customs’ remit. Thousands of employees, spread all over the country, gave their best in once again extraordinary circumstances last year. And while this may officially be the last presentation of annual figures of this legislature, it remains my goal to continue on the path we have taken. We have increased investment in people and resources in recent years for the first time in a long time and we will continue to do so. It remains my conviction to support and strengthen customs and customs officers.”

Franky De Keyzer, chief of the city’s public prosecutor’s office, said last week that Dutch criminals had overrun the port of Antwerp. Teens are allegedly paid to retrieve shipments of coke in Antwerp and Rotterdam, local reports indicate.

The report analyzed wastewater in 88 cities in 23 countries in the European Union as well as Turkey, home to some 55.6 million people, and researchers found a rise in cocaine consumption, followed by ketamine and MDMA. The prevalence of amphetamines and cannabis were less clear.

Drugs Destined for the Netherlands

Seizures of cocaine in Dutch ports are skyrocketing, with the nation’s largest busts ever taking place over the past few years. It’s alarming enough to prompt authorities to try new tactics.

In August 2023, Dutch customs officials announced they had seized eight tons of cocaine on a Maersk container ship during a routine check, after drug-sniffing dogs alerted them on July 13. The ship originated in Ecuador and docked at the port of Rotterdam, where port authorities found the drugs hidden inside pallets with bananas.

According to Dutch customs authorities, the cocaine estimated value is €600 million (about $662 million USD). Officials found and confiscated over 8,000 kilograms (17,600 pounds) of cocaine at the bust. It represents 23 times more than all the cocaine seized in Denmark in 2022, according to national police records from the Special Crime Unit, and was a record bust for the country.

Drug traffickers are also sending drugs to the Netherlands via airplane as well. Six bags containing 250 grams of cocaine, destined for The Netherlands, were seized by the Dominican Republic’s National Drug Control Directorate (DNCD) at the Las Américas International Airport just last Sunday. 

A drug-sniffing dog signaled the presence of controlled substances inside a box loaded with computer video cards, and a search revealed 250 grams of cocaine hidden in six envelopes.

DNCD said that a shipping manifest showed the package was allegedly sent by a woman with an address in Ciudad Juan Bosch, Las Flores and would be received by a person with residence in Rousseaustraat, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

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Only a few weeks after opening, supervised injection sites in New York City have potentially saved dozens of lives, leading city leaders to call on the Biden administration to authorize the use of similar harm reduction programs nationwide.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and the city’s health department announced on November 30 that the nation’s first publicly recognized overdose prevention centers (OPCs) had commenced operations in the city. Also commonly known as supervised injection sites, OPCs offer people a safe place to consume illicit drugs under the supervision of staff trained to intervene in the event of an overdose.

Other services including clean needle exchange, HIV testing and referrals to addiction treatment programs are often commonly available at supervised injection sites.

De Blasio, who has been calling for an OPC pilot program since 2018, noted that more than 2,000 people died of a drug overdose in New York City in 2020, the highest number since reporting began in 2000. Nationwide, more than 90,000 people died of an overdose in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the worst year ever recorded.

Supervised Injection Sites Save Lives

Internationally, supervised injection sites have been saving lives for decades. Research over 30 years at more than 100 such facilities has proven the efficacy of such programs. No overdose deaths have ever been recorded at a supervised injection site, and research has also shown that the sites reduce public drug use, litter from syringes and drug-related crime in surrounding neighborhoods.

“After exhaustive study, we know the right path forward to protect the most vulnerable people in our city, and we will not hesitate to take it,” de Blasio said in a statement at the time. “Overdose Prevention Centers are a safe and effective way to address the opioid crisis. I’m proud to show cities in this country that after decades of failure, a smarter approach is possible.”

Council Member Mark Levine, chair of the City Council Health Committee, said that “NYC has taken historic action against the mounting crisis of opioid deaths with the opening of the nation’s first overdose prevention centers.”

“This strategy is proven to save lives, and is desperately needed at a moment when fatalities are rising fast,” Levine added. “I applaud the city as well as the providers who offer these lifesaving services for this bold approach to stopping this crisis.”

The city’s OPCs are operated by outreach and education group New York Harm Reduction Educators, which has opened two supervised injection sites at existing facilities in Harlem and Washington Heights. As of December 14, only two weeks into the program, the two sites had registered 350 participants and staff had already reversed 43 overdoses, according to a report from WNYC/Gothamist.

City Leaders Seek Support from Biden Administration

The success of New York’s OPCs has led a group of city leaders to call on the administration of President Joe Biden to support federal authorization of supervised injection sites nationwide. Under the federal Controlled Substances Act, it is illegal to operate, own or rent a location for the purpose of using illegal drugs. 

In an op-ed published on December 15, New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Dave A. Chokshi, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz and Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance called on Biden to provide legal protection for OPCs to open across the country. 

They noted that in April, New York had joined the cities of San Francisco, Oakland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Somerville, Massachusetts, in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, asking the Justice Department to deprioritize enforcement of federal drug laws against supervised injection sites. But so far, no response has been received from federal officials.

The civic leaders also noted that Biden had recently become the first president to include harm reduction in his drug policy priorities and said that New York’s OPCs could be a model for the nation. Under the American Rescue Plan passed by Congress in March, $30 million was appropriated to state, local and tribal governments and organizations for overdose prevention and harm reduction services.

“It is time to embrace bold strategies in the face of public health crises, even if they may seem radical at first,” they wrote in the BuzzFeed News op-ed. “Thirty years ago, in the midst of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, New York City activists started one of the first syringe service programs in the country and, as a result, reduced HIV transmission among people who inject drugs, averting countless deaths.”

“We urge the Biden administration to endorse overdose prevention centers, empowering state and local jurisdictions to fully leverage their resources and authority to build healthier and safer cities, towns and communities,” the civic leaders concluded.

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