The Public Prosecution Service demanded on Wednesday in the court in Den Bosch a sentence of 6 years and 3 months in prison for a 57-year-old man from Ridderkerk for the import of 227 kilos of cocaine. The suspect is the owner of a company that imports vegetables and fruit. The police got onto his trail after customs found the blocks of cocaine hidden in the double bottoms of boxes with cassava during a container inspection.
On April 22, 2022, the container with cassava arrived from Costa Rica at the port of Antwerp. On May 6, 2022, Belgian customs inspected the container and discovered a total of 227 kilos of cocaine in the bottoms of the cardboard boxes. Customs removed the drug packages and put the boxes with cassava back in the container, which then continued its way to a storage location in De Lier.
Information from Belgium
The Belgian police shared that information with the Netherlands on May 12, 2022. Subsequently, the Dutch police started an investigation under the leadership of the National Prosecutors Office. The suspect was arrested on June 7, 2022. He denies knowing that there was cocaine in the shipment of cassava and claims that his vegetable and fruit company was exploited by drug criminals.
The Public Prosecution Service thinks otherwise and argues that the suspect wanted to present himself as a bona fide businessman by placing a real order for fruit, which was then allegedly switched without his fault. Nevertheless, according to the public prosecutor, he was definitively caught after the encrypted communication on his PGP phone was decrypted.
‘Keep it cool’
Thus, the suspect sent a message via his PGP phone to a contact stating that the containers had not yet been released. He wrote that one of the containers was selected for scanning and physical inspection. He did not know which one and said: ‘we have to keep cool’.
“The suspect was a crucial link in the logistical process. He ensured that the cocaine could come from the seller in South America to the Netherlands. He abused his company that imported fruit from South America as a cover. The company was already known to customs and thus had less chance of being checked,” said the public prosecutor.
At the suspects home, the police found four bundles with a total of €31,590 in a closet. Although the Public Prosecution Service suspects that this amount has an illegal origin, a legal origin cannot be ruled out. The prosecutor therefore requests acquittal for money laundering.
Fortius
The interception of the cocaine and the swift arrest of the suspect is the result of the Fortius taskforce, a collaboration between Belgian and Dutch police to combat cocaine smuggling between the port of Antwerp and the Netherlands.
The court will issue its ruling on September 10.