While getting an excess amount of drugs off the street is definitely a good thing, it has also led to Belgium police in a tricky situation. Who knew being so good at your job could be a bad thing?
Belgium customs officials have seized so much cocaine from smugglers trying to bring in the powder in the port of Antwerp that they now need to build more incinerators to destroy the illegal substances.
“There’s a problem with incinerator capacity,” Belgian customs service spokesperson Francis Adyns said. He confirmed that “a structural solution is on the way” to fix the demand problem.
Until the new incinerators are built, drugs that are seized by the police and customs are being held in depots but officials are worried that they might be targeted for robbery by criminals looking to cash in. Suspected gang members have already started using drones to scout customs depots housing cocaine worth millions of dollars.
More than 100 tons of cocaine was seized by Belgian authorities in 2022, beating the record of 89.5 tons set in 2021. The majority of the illicit product was coming from South America.