Antwerp Port Cocaine Seizures Drop to 55 Tonnes in 2025 from 121 Tonnes in 2023

Cocaine seizures at the port of Antwerp fell to 55 tonnes in 2025 from 121 tonnes in 2023, as Belgian customs authorities deployed new mobile scanners to counter evolving smuggling methods. The Guardian reported that authorities seized 483 tonnes of cocaine between January 2019 and June 2024, the largest amount among 17 ports reporting to the European Union Drugs Agency.

Officials are responding to a surge in cocaine production in South America, particularly Colombia, over the last decade, with Dutch drug gangs shifting focus from Rotterdam to Belgium.

Sara Van Cotthem, a communications officer for Belgium’s customs and excise, sliced open a cardboard box containing an aluminium stepladder made in China at the border inspection post at the port of Antwerp. She checked the paperwork and tapped it with a magnet to verify it was aluminium. The lorry, filled with identical boxed ladders, was cleared to proceed to Germany.

6 million 20ft-long (6 metres) containers last year. Belgian customs authorities bought nine mobile scanners, with six parked at Antwerp and three deployed elsewhere. In 2025, 65,000 risky containers were scanned at Antwerp, with a goal to scan 350,000 to 400,000 containers along fixed conveyer-belt machines.

Sara Van Cotthem said, 'It is like a cat and mouse game. Cocaine has been discovered mixed with orange juice or coal at Antwerp port. It has also been disguised in fake pineapples, embedded in cardboard boxes and textiles, and hidden inside wooden beams and paving stones.

Antwerp customs officers spend at least a year training to spot telltale marks on scanned containers. Kristian Vanderwaeren, the head of customs and excise in Belgium, noted that smugglers are dropping illegal cargo at sea using mother vessels from South America that transfer cocaine to smaller boats or toss waterproof bundles with floats and GPS trackers.

Police have identified these sea cargo dropping practices as far south as the Canary Islands and up to the Kattegat strait separating Denmark and Sweden.

Europol reported this year that semi-submersible vessels equipped with antennas and modems are likely already capable of crossing the Atlantic without a crew onboard. Brazilian authorities intercepted a cocaine-laden private jet destined for Belgium a few years ago.

In 2025, Ghana became the third most significant country of origin for drug seizures in Belgium, behind Ecuador and Costa Rica, with Colombia slipping to fifth place.

Spain reported 123 tonnes of cocaine seizures in 2024. France reported a doubling of impounded cocaine from 2023 to 2024. Data shows a rise in seizures of cocaine under 100g and a decrease in big hauls between 2023 and 2025 at Antwerp.

Letizia Paoli, the chair of criminal law and criminology at KU Leuven, estimated with academic colleagues in 2021 that EU consumers were using 160 tonnes of cocaine annually. 1 billion tonnes of goods enter EU seaports each year from the rest of the world.