Hamburg (dpa) – Customs officers in the German port city of Hamburg seized over 18 tons of cocaine in 2021, making it a record year in the battle against drug-smuggling.
A spokesperson for the Hamburg customs office, which oversees all of Germany’s North and Baltic Sea ports, announced the figure, which is more than double that of the previous year.
In 2020, the office secured around eight tons of cocaine.
A comprehensive report on 2021 operations is expected to be released in the new year.
The lion’s share of the 2021 haul was seized in February at the Port of Hamburg, when 16 tons of cocaine were discovered hidden in tin canisters in containers shipped from Paraguay. The canisters were meant to contain putty.
According to the German customs authority, it was the largest amount of cocaine ever seized in Europe.
It remains unclear who was behind that attempt to bring drugs into the continent. “The investigation is ongoing,” said Stephan Meyns, a spokesman for the Hamburg customs office.
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