Record cocaine haul in Hamburg. 35 tonnes worth several billion pounds

Investigators have seized a record amount of cocaine worth billions of pounds, reports the service tagesschau.de. The discovery took place in Hamburg, specifically at its port, which is one of three in Europe used for drug smuggling on an almost industrial scale.

The Central Office for Organized Crime in Düsseldorf reported the interception at the Hamburg port of a "record amount of cocaine." The Ministry of Justice mentioned 35 tonnes of this drug, which on the black market is worth several billion pounds, as reported by the service tagesschau.de.

Investigators will provide more details on this subject on Monday. So far, the discovery in Hamburg has led to operations in Bonn, Cologne, Leverkusen, Munich, Berlin, and Frankfurt am Main. The police have executed seven arrest warrants in this matter.

German media report that the largest single discovery of cocaine in Europe to date took place in 2021. At that time in Hamburg, the drug was found in several containers from Paraguay where it was supposed to be putty. 16 tonnes with a black market value of up to 3.5 billion pounds were discovered.

This year's discovery by the Hamburg customs office matched its total for 2023 when about 35 tonnes of cocaine were uncovered in German seaports. Investigators assume that this is only a fraction of the smuggled drug.

The three largest ports in Europe - Rotterdam, Antwerp, and Hamburg - are often used by cartels for drug smuggling. Last year, customs officers at the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp confiscated a record amount of almost 180 tonnes of cocaine, explains tagesschau.de.