An undercover police officer posing as a drug trafficker paid €180,000 for a shipment of cocaine as part of an operation against a warehouse storage firm suspected of helping to smuggle drugs into Zeeland.

The three directors of Vlissingen-based Bulk Terminal Zeeland (BTZ) were arrested in May after the company’s premises and several houses in the town were raided by police,

It was the culmination of a long-running investigation into allegations that BTZ’s facilities were being used to store 2,500kg of cocaine imported from South America.

Police decrypted app messages, tapped the three directors’ offices and installed a hidden camera at the entry gate to the harbour storage firm’s premises.

On Tuesday NOS news show Nieuwsuur revealed that an undercover officer had been authorised to pay for a 100kg consignment of cocaine to be stored by BTZ as part of the evidence gathering process. The drugs were taken from another shipment seized at a different location.

The lawyer for one of the company directors, Jacco G., said the move was “incomprehensible”. “It shows how far this investigation went, the way they made use of all possible means,” Rinus Wouters said.

“Entrapment”

The episode has echoes of the IRT scandal in the 1990s, when a task force set up to tackle drug smuggling allowed thousands of kilos of cocaine to flow into the country so they could monitor the trade routes.

The team was heavily criticised by a parliamentary inquiry in 1994 for facilitating organised crime, acting without the knowledge of the justice ministry and allowing informants in drug gangs to act with virtual impunity.

Wouters said there was no evidence linking his client to drug smuggling or that he had received money from the trafficking operation. “He knew nothing,” Wouters said. “It might be different for his fellow suspects.”

René de Groot, the lawyer for another of the suspects, Ko de K., said his client appeared to have been the victim of an entrapment operation. “He thought the money came from cash payments from the scrap metal trade,” De Groot said.

“An infiltration took place and the question is whether it was done in the correct manner. It looks suspiciously like entrapment.”

Company closed

On Wednesday Vlissingen’s mayor, Bas van den Tillaar, ordered BTZ, which employs 35 people, to be closed down for a year.

Officially the company specialises in long-term storage of bulk goods, such as large stones used to weigh down offshore wind turbines. It accounts for around 1% of Vlissingen harbour’s total trade.

BTZ was declared bankrupt a week ago and the justice ministry has made a confiscation order for €2 million against the three directors.

“There are risks involved in these socially damaging criminal activities,” Van den Tillaar said. “For me it is of the utmost importance that the company is detached from the trade so that the safety of the area and people working there is ensured.”

Wouters said the decision to shut down the company was an overreaction. “BTZ has been branded a criminal organisation,” he said. “In my view that is unjust.”