Inspection of shipping containers at Belgium port turns up 4.78 tons of cocaine, weapons and $193,000 in cash

Belgian authorities said on Friday they had seized almost five tons of cocaine stashed in shipping containers at Antwerp port, as part of a cross-border investigation into a drug-trafficking ring.

Prosecutors said eight people were detained following searches carried out in Belgium and the Netherlands earlier this month.

The inspections led to the seizure of $193,000 in cash as well as weapons, jewelry, luxury handbags, watches and 4.78 tons of cocaine.

The probe focused on a criminal organization involved in trafficking cocaine to Belgium from South America, Central America and Canada, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

The group allegedly facilitated the clearing of suspicious containers in the port of Antwerp and, in return for payment, provided logistical assistance to other organisations, it said.

Antwerp’s port is one of the major gateways for drugs smuggled from South America to the European market, and busts in and around the vast facility occur frequently.

Cocaine seizures there hit a record 116 tons last year.

Last month, a Belgian court jailed dozens of people in the country’s biggest ever drug trial, with the ringleaders sentenced to up to 17 years behind bars.

Earlier this year, police announced the takedown of a major network transporting Latin American cocaine into Europe by boat in an international operation involving 50 arrests across eight countries. Around that same time, authorities in Paraguay announced the largest cocaine seizure in the country’s history, after officials were surprised to find more than 4 tons of the drug stashed inside a shipment of sugar bound for Belgium.