Colombia seizes 7.6 tonnes of Netherlands-bound cocaine at Cartagena port

Separately, two Dutch nationals wanted by prosecutors in the Netherlands have been arrested in Colombia. Colombian police have seized 7.6 tonnes of cocaine bound for the Netherlands at the port of Cartagena, President Abelardo de la Espriella announced on Tuesday. "The National Police has just achieved the largest cocaine seizure in the port of Cartagena in the last 10 years," he wrote on X. According to Colombia's National Police, the drugs were hidden in powdered panela, an unrefined cane sugar, and were found by its anti-narcotics directorate in an operation coordinated with the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). De la Espriella said security forces had seized 132 tonnes of cocaine, worth around $6.1 billion, in his government's first 75 days. "There is no truce against narco-terrorism! Every dose we prevent from reaching the streets saves lives, and every dollar we take from them weakens their criminal structures," he added. Separately, the Dutch Public Prosecution Service (OM) confirmed to the Dutch newspaper AD that two Dutch nationals had been arrested in Colombia at its request. Colombian prosecutors named them as Ronny and Ulrich. Neither authority has linked the arrests to the seizure. According to the EU Drugs Agency, 330 tonnes of cocaine were seized in the EU in 2024, down from 419 tonnes in 2023.