Cocaine smuggling in reefers “too easy”

The never-ending flow of drugs that are mostly smuggled from South America to Europe, is big business. Quite regularly, reports emerge in media about intercepted shipments of cocaine, often hidden among fruit. The Dutch police, customs and Fiscal Information and Investigation Service have been working together in the HARC team for about twenty years now to deal with these crimes. We spoke to Jan Govaart, team leader at the HARC team, about the developments and what the trade sector can do to prevent unwanted products from travelling along with the fruit.

Last year, the HARC team intercepted around 10 tonnes of cocaine in the port of Rotterdam. According to police estimates, between 75 and 80% of the total volume of cocaine is smuggled in fruit containers. The criminal organizations do not distinguish between trade lines of big importers or small importers, and the boxes used for the contraband can be from both big brands and small ones. “We see boxes from Chiquita and Dole, but also from small or newly established brands, in which drugs are smuggled,” Jan says.

Details about the way the team works and how a container is selected for inspection remain unclear. That customs uses a risk analysis to make a selection from the containers that enter Rotterdam, is “correct in general terms.” That selection is based, among other things, on historical data. The accusation that the period of time a container spends on the dock for an inspection would be too long, is nonsense, according to Jan. “A regular scan takes around 7 minutes. When we want to inspect a container, it’s ours as soon as it’s unloaded from the ship onto the quay, and it’s inspected immediately.” The team with sniffer dogs, scan equipment and other inspection devices is at the ready. “It has to be like that, because if there are drugs in that container, it also means there is a recipient waiting for them. The throughput rate of fruit is very high, so we have to go along with that. When the recipient notices the container and drugs are being delayed, he might smell a rat.”

“We don’t refer to these criminals as organized crime without reason,” Jan says. “They really are well-organized with special departments for buying, selling, transport and security.” That the drugs are mostly found in fruit containers, doesn’t come as a surprise to Jan. “The fruit trade has a high throughput rate and if you look at the massive scale of fruit export, the reefers are a useful tool for smuggling.” The countries in Latin America top the list of biggest banana and pineapple exporters in the world.

Despite the efforts of the HARC team, together with international investigative organizations, the flow cannot be stopped. “We can’t prevent drugs from being smuggled, but the sector can help us,” Jan appeals to fruit importers. “The integrity of the means of transport, the reefer container, is fragile. It can be opened too easily or used for undesirable business.” In other words: It’s pretty easy to use reefers as a vessel for smuggling.

Importers can help make smuggling more difficult in two ways. “The fruit sector is already doing a great deal to prevent smuggling, as are the big shippers. Something that could still help, is using a smart seal on the containers, for instance.” That makes it harder to breach the container. And the trade sector can report a new company that suddenly emerges. “Especially if it wants to import bananas. The banana market is saturated, so if a new player emerges, that gives one reason to wonder.” Bananas or other fruit that’s too cheap could also signify smuggling.