Two large shipments of heroin, amounting to 1,660 kilograms, were discovered and seized in the Port of Antwerp in cooperation with Georgian authorities, the Antwerp Public Prosecutor’s Office reported on Thursday.
At a press conference on Friday organised by the FPS Finance, it was announced that customs had seized some 89.5 tonnes of cocaine in the port of Antwerp in 2021 – a third more than in 2020 and twice as much as five years ago.
The cocaine seized – mainly from Panama, Ecuador and Paraguay – has a street value of €12.76 billion, according to the authorities, who also intercepted 1.3 tonnes of heroin and 11.7 tonnes of hashish in 2021.
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Minister of Finance Vincent Van Peteghem explains that the increase is due to a global rise in drug-related crime, but also to investments in customs services which enable the service to intercept a higher volume of illegal substances.
The revelations of Operation Sky have also helped the authorities in their research work.
