iRozhlas from port docks to the streets of Europe.Cocaine pantographs in Rotterdam play a key role in the drug market

A group of people running in a row to a shipping container is visible on the shots from the CCTV system from the Rotterdam port.Shipment of tropical fruit from Colombia is already lined, but in one metal box, nothing different from thousands of others, the load remained.

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Inside the cooling unit is hidden 80 kilograms of cocaine, a quantity that could be sold on the street for four million euros (102.75 million crowns).

The task of collectors is to get drugs from the container and then away from the docks to be transported to Amsterdam, Berlin or London."The port is a gold mine, it's great," said a man with a blurred face and hood on his head journalists Danny Ghosen in his show Danny's Wereld broadcast at the station VPRO.

"I can earn well, it's close to home and work is always," he praises.Is one of the young men employing criminal organizations.

"Every work is different," the man explains."One boss will say 'you earn so much and so much and you divide that between yourself'," he says.Another will leave the pickers a bit of drugs that they can then sell themselves.They earn around 2000 euros for each kilogram of cocaine they bring out, BBC writes.

Days in a container

"We first noticed them about two years ago," says Andre Kramer, the owner of the company, which deals with unloading containers.“It used to be one two people before and it happened once, twice a year.In the last six months groups of pickers have increased, have ten or 12 members, ”explains.

The volume of cocaine imported into the Netherlands increases exponentially and the methods of pickers are increasingly sophisticated.Sometimes cocaine do not personally bring it out of the port and instead translate it into a container that the gang will indicate directly from the port to this purpose, and then take it a truck.

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Other times gangs await in the port of drug supply."We recently discovered three hotel containers," says Kramer."The pickers in them dwelled a day or two.They eat there, drink...We found mattresses, empty bottles of water, food packaging, ”says Kramer.

But staying in a container may be very dangerous.In September nine men stuck inside the container partially filled with tree trunks because the door was stuck.Inside the oxygen dropped, the temperature grew, and the collectors had to call the emergency line.

"We had information that nine people would probably die in a container, but it is between 100,000 other containers and collectors did not know exactly where they are," says Jan Jans, Police head in the port of Rotterdam.Police officers managed to find them, but for security reasons, they do not mention how.Several collectors ended up in the hospital with respiratory problems.

Intimidation of customs officers

In 2014, customs officers and police in Rotterdam detained more than 5000 kilograms of cocaine, last year it was 41,000 kilograms and Jans estimates that this year it will be 60,000 kilograms.And it's just a fraction of the actual amount that gets to the port.

110 pickers were caught in September in a single week.If they are not caught directly in the act, they only face a fine of 100 euros for breach of the entry ban."We say we're just going through that we are fascinated by containers," explains the man who feeds on drugs from the port.

The port of Rotterdam is 42 kilometers long and is the largest in Europe.The 23,000 containers check in every day.And the key factor for the collectors and gangs for which they work is corruption.

“If you come here tomorrow morning I guarantee that you can get a security card.Just tell someone from the workers to lend you a day for 500 euros, ”explains the collector.

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"It would be difficult to do our job if we had no one inside, like a customs officer.For example, he has a container waiting for a tour, but will eliminate him from the inspection list, ”he describes.And if people do not want to work inside, it will be a series of intimidation."When the customs officer tells you 'no', you threaten his children, then he quickly says 'yes'," says.

Andre Kramer says his employees are under pressure because those who work for an organized crime have them on their eyes."They go home to them and maybe tell them to place containers near the fence," says.

The head of Rotterdam investigators Hugo Hillenaar knows these stories intimately."A large part of crime in the city is somehow related to the problem of drugs," says."Now we have an incident with shooting almost every day, violence is growing," admits.

The cocaine trade also has bloody consequences extending beyond Rotterdam, including the murder of a prominent investigative journalist Peter de Vries.

Tightening

Hillenaar hopes that the change for a better will bring the tightening of the law according to which for unauthorized entry to the port will be a penalty of a year's prison from next year.Given what amounts the pickers can earn, for example, entrepreneur Andre Kramer is sure that the change will work.Fears that the situation can sharpen.

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“Now the pantographs are leaving in peace.But it will be hard when they start using anything to get away: weapons, knives.You don't want to have a Wild West in your terminal, ”says.

Some young men the threat of staying behind bars can bring it to think about it before they stretch dark clothes and break into one of the Rotterdam container depots.But others will not be discouraged due to the high financial reward.They are aware that they play an important role on the European cocaine scene and that it is a business that will not end up.

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