Belgian police have arrested 30 people following raids targeting a gang with links to corrupt staff involved in recovering smuggled cocaine shipped to Antwerp.
European agency Europol said 42 houses were searched in Spain and Belgium after police discovered that a restaurant in the Antwerp district of Deurne was being used as a meeting place to organise drug deals.
Officers identified two criminal networks including a predominantly Albanian family group operating from Antwerp and a second gang led by a Belgian-based Spanish criminal, according to the policing agency.
It said the Spanish-led group was “connected to the importation of hashish from Spain and extraction of cocaine shipments from Antwerp harbour”.
It added: “The network had access to several corrupt employees working in the area of the port.”
The suspects are accused of laundering their criminal profits through law firms and property businesses based across Albania, Kosovo, Belgium and Spain.
Last month, Europol said more than 200 tonnes of cocaine have been transported through Antwerp-Bruges and the Dutch port of Rotterdam — the European Union’s two busiest — by criminal gangs after they secured unique container codes from corrupt insiders.
Gangs pay hundreds of thousands of euros to corrupt insiders involved in shipping logistics to hand over the unique computerised details of a container that is assigned once payment has been made for transport.
The reference code allows a lorry driver pretending to be the legitimate client to collect the container with drugs stowed inside and to drive off with it.
Europol said more than 90m containers are handled every year by the EU’s ports, with only one in 10 from South American countries checked.
A record 160 tonnes of cocaine was seized at Antwerp-Bruges and Rotterdam last year, with the overwhelming share found in Antwerp.
In February, five container liner operators promised to improve cooperation with Belgium and the Netherlands to tackle the problem.
It is not a new method for restaurants in northern European port cities to be converted for use as criminal meeting places for drug gangs. A similar meeting place was used by gangs in Rotterdam before it was raided by police in 2013.
Entry to the Cafe de Ketel was by invitation only and protected by a camera and buzzer system.
Police believe that traffickers from South America and Europe met there to discuss their plans until it was closed down.
