so, darker edges and just and lighter in the middle. and then they found this, also cocaine. most of the drugs were destined for the netherlands to then be distributed to the uk as well as other parts of europe. tsunami, avalanche, how you will, it s coming to us and we are trying to stop the most. belgium customs intercepted so much cocaine in 2022, they can t destroy it fast enough. but some estimate only 10% of the cocaine arriving in antwerp is being detected. every way to smuggle cocaine as possible just invented, think of it, and they will do it. every year, it s growing and growing and we are doing more and more controls and
and we will do every year better and better. around 2% of containers are physically checked. much of the goods are food, which will rot if not shifted quickly. more scanners are coming, but not fast enough. antwerp is now the number one port in europe for cocaine seizures, with the dutch city of rotterdam second. another entry point is galicia in spain, where traffickers are increasingly using another strategy. this is the first submarine known to have been used to bring cocaine from south america to europe. it s home made and it travelled 4,000 miles across the atlantic ocean. the voyage in 2019 took 27 days and only ended when the three men on board tried to sink the vessel, but they d been tracked and were arrested.
and growing and we are doing more and more controls and still we seize more cocaine. does it feel like you re fighting an impossible battle? we will never win this battle. we do the best we can, and we will do every year better and better. around 2% of containers are physically checked. much of the goods are food, which will rot if not shifted quickly. more scanners are coming, but not fast enough. antwerp is now the number one port in europe for cocaine seizures, with the dutch city of rotterdam second. another entry point is galicia in spain, where traffickers are increasingly using another strategy. this is the first submarine known to have been used to bring cocaine from south america to europe. it s home made and it travelled 4,000 miles across the atlantic ocean.
one route into europe. when i think back now on that time and i say, no, it was completely wrong what i did. 100%. now my punishment is done, and i show you that the port is very open. he can understand why this port has become the gateway to europe for cocaine. i tried also in hamburg, and we tried also in marseille. everything is much easier in antwerp, and everybody who is doing this kind of business, they know antwerp is easy and that s the place to do something. and i know people, they try also other places, but they always come back to antwerp. he takes us for a ride around the sprawling port to show us how open it is. we drive around the container terminalfor two hours without being stopped or questioned. the port is open, like what we did now. you go inside, and all the information that you need to start something, you can see yourself. you have the truck drivers,
the wrong address, like here. quite often, it s, yeah they the guys who do the assaults are recruited in mainly in holland. so, theyjust get an address, they put it in their waze or i don t know what. but, for example, we have the same streets in different districts in antwerp. patrick says there is a growing fear in this community about the fallout from this surge in violence. everyone is afraid that one day or another, an innocent people could get hurt, maybe killed by a mistake. and just a few weeks later, an 11 year old girl is shot dead in antwerp. an innocent life lost in this growing spiral of violence.