Why has cocaine seized at Antwerp's port fallen so sharply this year?
Belgian Customs figures reported by VRT NWS show cocaine intercepted at the port of Antwerp fell sharply again in the first half of this year, extending a decline from a record 116 tonnes in 2023 to roughly 44 tonnes in 2024.
In 30 seconds
- Belgian Customs seized a record 116 tonnes of cocaine at Antwerp in 2023, falling to roughly 44 tonnes in 2024 (VRT NWS / Belgian Customs figures).
- VRT NWS reports a further sharp decline in seizures during the first half of this year.
- The Port of Antwerp-Bruges is Europe's second-largest container port, handling over 12 million standard container units annually.
- Seizures have been rising at rival ports including Rotterdam and Hamburg, consistent with rerouting of the trade.
Key fact
116 tonnes Belgian Customs seized a record of cocaine at Antwerp in 2023, falling to roughly 44 tonnes in 2024 (VRT NWS / Belgian Customs figures).
Cocaine seizures at the Port of Antwerp are reported by the Algemene Administratie van de Douane en Accijnzen, the Belgian federal Customs administration under the finance ministry (FOD Financiën). Antwerp, operated by the Port of Antwerp-Bruges authority, is Europe's second-largest container port and for years has been the leading entry point for cocaine into Europe. Key actors include Belgian Customs, the federal police, the Antwerp public prosecutor's office (parket), the port authority, and criminologists at Ghent University's IRCP; the EU drugs agency (EUDA, formerly EMCDDA) tracks consumption via wastewater analysis. 'Uithalers' are locally recruited crews paid to retrieve concealed drugs from containers.
Background
Antwerp overtook Rotterdam as Europe's principal cocaine gateway over the 2010s as container volumes soared and cartels exploited the port's scale. Seizures climbed year after year — around 110 tonnes in 2022 to a record 116 tonnes in 2023 — before the sharp drop to roughly 44 tonnes in 2024. The surge was accompanied by drug-linked violence, including grenade attacks and shootings in Antwerp neighbourhoods, prompting reforms to the container-collection system and heavier investment in scanning and access control.
What to do
Port security costs and Antwerp's competitiveness against Rotterdam and Hamburg hinge on whether the decline is durable; for households, persistently high cocaine purity and prices signal that supply into Belgian cities may not have genuinely fallen.
Impact
Regional — Antwerp bears the concentrated impact: the port drives Flemish employment and public revenue, while the drug trade fed extortion, dock corruption and shootings that scarred the city over recent years. A sustained fall would relieve pressure on the port authority's security spending and on the overstretched Antwerp parket; a displacement would leave corruption risk on the quays intact.
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This story was assembled from verified evidence, with its sources and reasoning recorded as it was written.