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Assignment: Rotterdam and the cocaine connection

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25/11/2021 GMT

Rotterdam and the cocaine connection

BBC World Service - Assignment, Rotterdam and the cocaine connection

The Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands is being overrun by illicit drugs

The Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands is being overrun by illicit drugs.

Europe’s North Sea coast has overtaken the Iberian peninsula as the primary point of entry for cocaine reaching the continent.  Industrial-sized labs have been busted in the Netherlands, and mafia-style executions have occurred on the streets. Most recently, crime journalist Peter R de Vries was shot and mortally wounded in busy Amsterdam. Linda Pressly asks how the Netherlands has become one of the largest illicit drug economies in the world.  

Reporter:  Linda Pressly
Producer:  Michael Gallagher
Editor:  Bridget Harney

Image: CCTV footage from the port of Rotterdam showing cocaine ‘collectors’ – young men charged with retrieving smuggled narcotics from shipping containers (Credit: Kramer Group)

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