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Drug traffickers take advantage of the explosion in global maritime trade and flood the docks with their goods. The profits generated in port cities are considerable.
By Guillaume Perrier
Published on
IThey measure 12.20 m in length, 2.43 m in width and 2.59 m in height in their most common version. They are red, green, blue, rusted or freshly painted, and pile up like Lego along the quays. The containers, these metal boxes which circulate night and day on the Belgian port of Antwerp, have become the symbol of the influence of the city, almost surpassing Rubens and the diamonds, with which the Flemish city was until then associated.
Antwerp sees astronomical quantities pass by, 12 million last year, which makes it one of the largest European ports, with its Dutch neighbor Rotterdam. But with the containers, all traffics have engulfed them, and in particular the most lucrative of them, that of cocaine, coming from South America…
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