Customs officials at Rotterdam port have seized cocaine with a street value of €313m in a consignment of soy beans from Paraguay.

The drugs, a total of nearly 4.2 tonnes, were hidden in sacks of soy beans and spread across two containers. The containers originated in Paraguay but were transferred to a second ship in Uruguay.

The haul is one of the biggest ever found in Rotterdam, but the record dates back to 2005 when officials found 4.6 tonnes of cocaine in one shipment.

This weekend officials in Colombia and Panama also intercepted large volumes of cocaine they said was en route for Rotterdam. Some 2 tonnes was found in Cartagena port and a further three tonnes in Colombia.

In September, European policing organisation Europol published a report saying the increased use of shipping containers to conceal drugs has made the high volume ports of Antwerp, Rotterdam and Hamburg the new epicentre of the European cocaine market.

While Antwerp is the biggest arrival port for cocaine, most of the drug is ‘is likely intended for organisations operating out of the Netherlands, from where the cocaine is further distributed to other European destinations, Europol said.

Dutch customs officers impounded some 48,000 kilos of cocaine in the ports and at Schiphol airport last year, a rise of 24% compared to 2019.

Seizures at labs are also going up. Last July, police busted the biggest cocaine laboratory ever found in the Netherlands, arresting 17 men, including 13 Colombians, in the process.