hunck
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Drug suspects trapped in container call Antwerp police for help
Two men got locked in a metal container full of cocaine on the hottest day on record
Antwerp seems to be the port of choice for drug smugglers
Two men got locked in a metal container full of cocaine on the hottest day on record
Two suspected drug traffickers were forced to call the police on themselves after getting locked in stifling heat in a shipping container packed with cocaine at the port of Antwerp.
The two men, aged 24 and 25, had to make an emergency call to the police, during which they said they had been “trapped” while trying to take possession of the drugs.
It took two hours for the police to locate the correct container at the port of Antwerp, which is the second largest in the world.
Armed police opened the container to find the men stripped to their waists and dehydrated in the extreme heat of last week.
The men became stuck last Wednesday, on one of the hottest days recorded in Belgium with temperatures exceeding 40C. On being released they had cold water thrown over them to bring down their temperatures. They were not fit for immediate interrogation.
Antwerp seems to be the port of choice for drug smugglers
In June, two men, aged 33 and 35, were arrested from a container at the same location after being discovered by dockers who had locked them up. About 882 kilos of cocaine was found.
A total of 50 tonnes of cocaine with a street value of €2.5bn was seized at the port in 2018, compared to 8.1 tonnes in 2014. A further 4.4 tonnes of heroin was seized, along with 16.8 tonnes of cannabis and 8 tonnes of opiates.