Hamburg, Nov. 26, (dpa/GNA) – Authorities from the major European port cities of Rotterdam, Antwerp and Hamburg gathered on Tuesday to discuss the joint fight against international drug smuggling and organized crime.
“We have to work together, not just as cities, but with the police, with Europol, with customs and also with companies,” said the mayor of the Dutch city of Rotterdam, Carola Schouten.
Hamburg Mayor Peter Tschentscher said that police and port security authorities, customs and the public prosecutor’s offices in the three cities are jointly discussing how they could counter the drug cartels in a timely manner through effective cooperation.
The participants at the “Three Ports Summit” discussed drug seizures, drug cartel activities and best-practice concepts for countering smugglers, said Andy Grote, who is responsible for interior matters in the German federal state of Hamburg.
According to the EU police agency Europol, more than 300 tons of cocaine was seized in EU ports last year. In Antwerp, investigators seized a record 121 tons of cocaine.
The port of Hamburg is the focal point of cocaine smuggling in Germany. According to German customs officials, 35 tons was seized there last year.
In the Netherlands, authorities seized a total of around 60 tons of cocaine at ports in the country. Rotterdam is the busiest port in Europe by tonnage, while Antwerp and Hamburg are the second and third-largest in the European Union.
Last February, the mayors of Hamburg, Rotterdam and Antwerp travelled to Colombia and Ecuador together, where they agreed to cooperate more closely in the fight against drug trafficking.
GNA