Port workers in Rotterdam are to be subjected to stricter vetting procedures in an attempt to stop drugs criminals infiltrating the security system.

Employees with a history of drugs offences could be barred from key roles, such as planning which containers are picked out for screening, under a pilot scheme being run by the justice ministry.

‘The pilot has just started in Rotterdam and the expectation is that it will apply to tens of thousands of employees,’ a spokesman said.

The scheme is an enhanced version of the disclosure system (VOG), designed to identify employees who could be vulnerable because of their connections to the criminal fraternity.

Rotterdam and Antwerp have become Europe’s biggest hub for the international cocaine trade, with 157 tonnes seized last year across the two ports, according to a recent UN report.

Law enforcement agencies said criminal gangs depended on help from the inside to smuggle drugs through Rotterdam and targeted employees such as lorry drivers and customs staff who had access to the docklands area.

Extra tools needed

After gaining access they send in ‘runners’, sometimes schoolchildren, to retrieve hidden consignments of drugs before port officials can intercept them. Around 80 suspected runners have been caught since the start of the year.

‘Cutting a gap in the fence doesn’t work any more, it almost always requires help from the inside,’ Loes van der Wees of the prosecution service’s Rotterdam office said.

Employers’ organisation Deltalinqs said more extra screening tools were ‘urgently needed’ as the standard VOG was not enough to cover the risks. The intelligence service AIVD also vets workers for high-security positions, but this is a ‘very complex’ process, director Bas Janssen told Trouw.

‘There is a big gap in between,’ he said. ‘A special VOG allows you to look deeper into the background of employees with an essential function at the port and to do so periodically.’