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WORLD NEWS Friday 11 august 2023

Dutch customs officials make record cocaine seizure worth 600

million euros

By Mike Corder were a lawyer representing
Associated Press a witness in the trial of an
THE HAGUE, Netherlands alleged drug gangster and
(AP) — Customs authorities crime reporter Peter R. de
in Rotterdam have confis- Vries, who was a confidant
cated more than 8,000 ki- of the witness.
lograms (17,600 pounds) of Unspecified threats to the
cocaine, the largest seizure heir to the Dutch throne,
of the drug in the Neth- Princess Amalia, forced her
erlands, prosecutors said last year to abandon stu-
Thursday. dent accommodation in
The drugs had an estimat- Amsterdam and continue
ed street value of 600 mil- her studies from home.
lion euros ($662 million), the In Ecuador, drug traffick-
Rotterdam Public Prosecu- ers have begun to use the
tion Service said in a state- This picture provided on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023, by the Rotterdam Public Prosecution Service country’s coastal ports and
ment. No arrests have been shows 8,000 kilograms (17,637 pounds) of cocaine. have unleashed a wave
made yet in an investiga- (Openbaar Ministerie, Netherlands Public Prosecution Service via AP) of violence not seen there
tion following the discov- known for speaking out tion said in its annual report continent, it said. in decades as rival gangs
ery, which was kept secret against drug cartels and in June. The expansion of the co- battle for control.
because of the ongoing corruption in the South It said record amounts of caine market has been ac- Last month, the mayor of
probe. Prosecutors said the American nation was fa- cocaine are being seized companied by a rise in vio- the port city of Manta was
drugs, which have been tally shot at a political rally. in Europe, with 303 tons lence and corruption in the shot and killed. On July 26,
destroyed, were discov- The flourishing drug trade confiscated by EU member EU, with fierce competition President Guillermo Lasso
ered on July 13 hidden in a in Europe also is fueling countries in 2021. Rotter- between traffickers leading declared a state of emer-
container of bananas from violence and corruption dam and the Belgian port to a rise in homicides and gency covering two prov-
Ecuador. The announce- on the continent, the Eu- of Antwerp are now the intimidation. inces and the country’s
ment came the day after ropean Union agency that main gateways for Latin Among the victims in the prison system in an effort to
a presidential candidate monitors drugs and addic- American cocaine into the Netherlands in recent years stem the violence.q

Italy probes a migrant boat disaster that left 41 feared dead

By Frances D’Emilio reach it. But only the four took them to Lampedusa. gento, Sicily. “We know tow or transfer people be-
Associated Press of them made it to the The survivors said 41 fellow that the smugglers launch tween boats in the Mediter-

ROME (AP) — An Italian boat and climbed aboard passengers, including three these boats of very poor ranean.
prosecutor investigating only to find the iron-hulled, children, set out with them quality with 50 to 70 mi- “Often boats are left be-
last week’s capsizing that open-topped vessel had from the port of Sfax, Tu- grants aboard.’’ hind after migrants go
left 41 migrants feared no engine. nisia, on Aug. 3. Waves as Sometimes survivors of aboard a rescue vessel,’’
dead in the Mediterra- State TV reported that the high as 4 meters (13 feet) such shipwrecks include Vella said. “We don’t know
nean Sea on Thursday de- migrants then survived for swamped the smugglers’ crewmen engaged by the why there was no engine
nounced Tunisia-based about four days on four boats the next day, they smugglers who then try to aboard the boat” found
smugglers who launch bottles of drinking water said. pass themselves off as pas- by the survivors, but “these
boats so badly built that and a half-package of The others were missing, sengers. engines are precious, so it’s
they quickly take on water, crackers they found in the and presumably died. But in this case, “we can possible someone took it”
overturn or break apart. boat. A Malta-flagged ship “Their story is plausible,’’ exclude any of the four” at sea.
The capsizing earlier this rescued them, and an Ital- said Chief Prosecutor Sal- had such a role, Vella told Pope Francis, who since
week was the latest in a ian Coast Guard vessel vatore Vella, based in Agri- The Associated Press over the start of his papacy has
string of similar recent trag- the phone. repeatedly denounced the
edies that have killed doz- The boat the survivors set loss of life of migrants at sea,
ens of people who entrust- off in is the type hastily sol- said on X, formerly known
ed themselves to smugglers dered together with pieces as Twitter, on Thursday: “Let
based on Tunisia’s shores to of iron by smugglers in Tu- us not remain indifferent to
reach Italy in hopes of find- nisia to keep up with de- these tragedies.”
ing a better life. mands by migrants desper- According to an official of
Four young migrants who ate to make the risky jour- the European Union’s bor-
were rescued by a passing ney toward Italy’s shores, der agency, Frontex, a fish-
merchant ship following the Vella said. ing boat was recently seen
Aug. 4 capsizing told doc- “The soldering on these harassing migrants at sea
tors and police on the tiny boats is done only at some off Tunisia’s coast, circling
Italian island of Lampedusa points, not in a solid line. ... around them and ask-
where they were brought Water gets in,″ Vella add- ing them for money in ex-
on Wednesday that they ed. “They are criminals.” change for towing them to
survived by clinging to air The fate of who those who closer to Lampedusa. The
tubes for hours. might have been on board official was not authorized
They and a few other sur- In this photo provided by Sea-Watch on Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023, the empty vessel is not to speak to journalists and
four migrant survivors wave for help as they are in distress at
vivors spotted an empty sea. known though it’s not un- spoke on the condition of
boat and struggled to (Karolina Sobel/Sea-Watch via AP, File) common for smugglers to anonymity.q