UpdateIn three days, two Dutchmen were arrested in Malta on suspicion of drug trafficking. One of them was in possession of five kilos of cocaine and four kilos of heroin with an estimated street value of about 1.5 million euros.
The 42-year-old suspect was arrested today in Qormi near the Maltese capital Valletta. During a search of a garage in Santa Verena, near the harbor, agents found 380,000 euros in cash. The police had been observing the Dutchman for months because it was suspected that he was smuggling drugs to Malta and used the garage as a base for his operations, reports The Malta Independent. The 40-year-old appeared in court today, where, according to the newspaper, he was charged with importation, trafficking and possession of drugs, as well as money laundering.
It was already the second Dutchman this week who ended up in jail in Malta on charges of drug trafficking. On Monday, Melvin N. from Suriname was arrested at the international airport of the island state. He arrived at 12:30 pm with a flight from Brussels. Airport police officers found a bag of cannabis on the Dutchman’s body while searching the Dutchman. The man claimed the drugs were for his own use, but the subsequent full body check found even more drugs: about 200 grams of cocaine wrapped in tape and attached to his genitals.
The suspect also appeared in court today. He pleaded ‘not guilty’ to possession and trafficking of cocaine, reports the Times of Malta. Circumstances indicated that the drugs were not solely for personal use. According to the newspaper, the public prosecutor said that N. had stated during the police interrogation that this was not the first time ‘he did such a job’.
The court ordered the Dutchman’s pre-trial detention after he agreed to confiscate all the items he was carrying. Since he intended to settle in Malta and look for a job but did not yet have a permanent residence, his lawyer did not ask for her client’s bail, the newspaper said.
Regular drug seizures
Drug smugglers are often caught at Malta airport. Usually they are drug couriers. Every now and then the police and customs do a large drug bust, such as in September 2020. When they found 10 kilos of cocaine in the luggage of a woman from Spain. Customs officers had noticed a suspicious irregularity in the scan image of her suitcase. It turned out to have a double bottom containing three packages of coke wrapped in aluminum foil.
It was one of the top ten seizures at airports in Western Europe, the World Customs Organization’s regional intelligence agency reported in its annual report. In nearly 53 percent of the 765 drug seizures that year, the drugs were hidden in the carrier’s luggage, either in double bottoms or walls, between jewelry or in special cloaks discovered by X-ray scans. In 22 percent of the cases, the drugs had been swallowed or hidden in the body and in 15 percent the drugs were stuck on the body or hidden in clothing.
‘The most common departure countries of drug couriers who encountered the lamp at European airports, based on the number of seizures, were the Netherlands Antilles (21%), Brazil (12%), Suriname (7%) and Spain (6%). The most common destinations were the Netherlands (35%), Spain (13%) and Ireland (10%)’, quotes Malta Today from the annual report.
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Tags: Dutch detained Malta drug seizures cocaine taped genitals
