Three men have been arrested, on suspicion of planning to smuggle cocaine in large quantities, hidden in pineapple shipments from South America to the Netherlands. In Panama at the end of November 2009 900kgs. of cocaine, packed in plastic crates was intercepted, which is most probably connected to this shipment. The cocaine would have been shipped to Antwerp by sea container loaded with pineapples.

The suspects are a 49 year old man from Amsterdam, a 46 year old man from Rotterdam and a 45 year old citizen from Etten-Leur. The police confiscated a pistol with silencer, a sub-machine gun, 119 mobile telephones and administration, when searching the houses of the three men.

In connection with this case the federal police in Belgium arrested four subjects on Tuesday. Their instructions were to collect the four containers with cocaine from the port of Antwerp. The Nationale Recherche cooperate very closely with the Belgian federal police in this investigation.

The subjects shipped seven containers with pineapples between Panama and Antwerp. These containers did not hold any cocaine as per inspection reports. The containers were addressed to a fake address in the Czech Republic.