Europol says 17 kingpins arrested in anti-cocaine sting

Belgian, Dutch and German police have arrested 17 suspected cocaine kingpins linked to a record bust in the ports of Hamburg and Antwerp, the EU policing agency Europol said Thursday.

Federal and regional police in a three-country operation swooped on more than 35 premises and confiscated four apartments, four cars, electronic equipment, watches and cash valued at 5.5 million euros ($5.9 million), Europol said.

Eleven suspects were arrested in Germany, five in Belgium and three in the Netherlands, the Hague-based agency said in a statement.

“This operation targeted the European and South American drugs and money-laundering infrastructure of a large scale trafficking network,” Europol said.

The arrests were linked to a probe into the seizure of some 34 tonnes of cocaine in February last year in Hamburg and Antwerp — a record haul valued at billions of euros — Europol said.

“During the investigation, the cooperating authorities uncovered that this criminal group had the capacity to ship multiple multi-tonne cocaine consignments towards Europe in just a few months,” the agency added.

Police were able to expose the cocaine operation after taking down the SKY ECC communications platform.

They last year hacked into the network, almost exclusively used by organised crime groups to communicate via encrypted telephones.

Dozens of other suspects had already been arrested in February in a major operation coordinated by Europol in six European countries in connection with the same case.