Police find 300 kilos of cocaine on boat in Zeeland, also...

On Tuesday, the police found a motorboat with 300 kilos of cocaine on board in the port of Breskens in Zeeland. Not much later, a bag with 50 kilos of cocaine washed up on the beach at Zoutelande, the police reported Wednesday. Presumably both parties left drugs behind off the coast of Zeeland, so that smugglers could fish them.

The crew of the boat, three men from Urk, Kampen and Zwolle, has been arrested and is in limitations. They may only have contact with their lawyer. During searches of the homes of the men and a stay at a campsite in Emst, a firearm was found.

The motorboat had come into the sights of the detectives through an investigation by the Public Prosecution Service. They found the cocaine packages in a hidden space of the vehicle. The police believe the boat’s final destination was the port of Antwerp.

It is unlikely that Tuesday’s drug seizure has to do with the hundreds of packages that washed ashore at the Zeeland coast earlier this month. More than three hundred packages containing presumably cocaine were found on the beach at Borssele.

This is a smuggling method that is common, explains a spokesperson for the National Unit. Large cargo ships discharge a quantity of drugs into the water before they reach the ports. These are tied in bags to flotation devices such as a lifebuoy. Then the drugs are picked up by other smugglers. “This often goes well, but sometimes it can happen that a package washes up,” said the spokesman.