BRUSSELS: Belgium police have recovered more than 1,000 kilos of cocaine with a street value of more than €50 million (£37 million) from packages floating in the sea off Ostend.
It is the third time in less than three months that police have hauled in drugs packages from the water, as traffickers test new ways of smuggling drugs into Europe.
Belgian magistrate Ken Witpas said: “As the chance of getting caught in the ports increases, criminals are trying out other, sometimes novel, methods in order to avoid the classic controls.More and more traffickers are trying it and this is a growing phenomenon with us.”
Police say the drugs were wrapped in 16 large packages and were discovered by a fishing vessel floating on the surface of the North Sea about 20km off the Belgian coast.
