Customs officers confiscated 12,000 kilos of cocaine at Dutch ports in 2013, according to figures from the finance ministry quoted by website nu.nl.

It is the largest seizure of cocaine since figures were made public in 2007. In 2012, 7,937 kilos were confiscated.

The rise can be put down to the increasing size of the shipments, particularly at the ports of Rotterdam and Vlissingen, which are intended for transhipment.

‘The Netherlands appears to be a transhipment centre for cocaine,’ a ministry official told nu.nl. ‘We are not seeing an increase in cocaine use in the Netherlands.’