Speech State Secretary for Benefits and Customs De Vries announcement drug figures over 2023

Speech | 17-01-2024

Ladies and gentlemen,

Dear colleague, Vincent (van Peteghem),

Welcome to you all. Last year, we were in Antwerp for the first joint presentation on the subject of drug seizures. At that time, we outlined our intention to intensify our battle against the disruption we face.

This has delivered results, because we intercepted more drugs in 2023 than in the year before.

The amount of cocaine intercepted in the Netherlands rose to almost 60,000 kg. In 2022, that figure was just 51,000 kg. So, this amounts to an increase of almost 18%.

But more about that later.

The bad news is that the drugs entering our country are causing a great deal of misery. 

This misery is often felt by people who want nothing to do with the trade in drugs.

The trade in drugs is encouraging others to enter a life of crime. Children are being recruited to retrieve smuggled drugs from containers and drawn into a life of crime. It also leads to violence. To a sense of unsafety. To explosions in local neighbourhoods. And this is not just happening in the major cities. It’s also going on in the countryside – where the impact may be even worse. Drug trafficking leads to murders, which innocent citizens may witness, or they may even become the victims themselves.

It can also lead to danger for the Customs officers who combat this criminality. Over the last year, there were various incidents, including a situation where people retrieving drugs deliberately drove into Customs officers. The fact that this is happening is completely unacceptable!

The use of drugs also causes misery for users. But, it’s actually the users who are perpetuating the trade in drugs. It’s important to emphasise this point again here: users are also partly responsible. Without users, there would be no drugs.

I’ve discussed this important issue with Customs officers several times recently. Including just a few months ago here in Vlissingen, together with His Majesty the King. Customs officers told us about intimidation, threats and violence against them and their families. These are harrowing stories.

In a nutshell: drug crime undermines society. So, there’s every reason to continue our concerted efforts to combat it. These include intensifying and making changes to checks and inspections and continually introducing innovations.

In our efforts to hunt down drug criminals, we need to continually reinvent ourselves. Criminals refuse to be deterred by laws or limited resources. They have virtually unlimited possibilities. In our response, we need to be smarter. That means making maximum use of innovations. For example, we’re developing AI-tools to improve the use of scanned images for intercepting drugs, and we’re using underwaterrobots and drones. With the help of a drone, Customs recently succeeded in catching drug smugglers on an underwater scooter.

We’re tackling evil at its roots: by hunting down drugs criminals by means of these innovations, we’re making their trade less lucrative and undermining their business model.

In addition, it’s important to ensure that we’re properly equipped as Customs. The Special Assistance Team (TBB) is therefore being issued with long-barrelled, semi-automatic weapons.

Criminals are like water: always in search of the lowest point. If they can no longer enter via Rotterdam, they’ll find other routes into our country. That’s why we’ve also expanded the deployment of Customs elsewhere in our country. Customs capacity has been doubled here in the port of Vlissingen. The same also applies to the ports in the north of our country, where we began using drones last year.

If they cannot enter via the Netherlands, they’ll find other routes into our continent. They will go via Antwerp, Le Havre or Hamburg. In other words, international collaboration is essential. Our joint presentation here is the culmination of years of collaboration. We have liaisons officers in each other’s countries, Belgian Customs uses the Dutch diving team and we collaborate on the development of algorithms, making it increasingly easier to identify on scanned images whether there are drugs in a container. Last year, we expanded this collaboration by also involving private parties.

This collaboration with private parties is a source of pride for me. We’ve made agreements with the major shipping companies on such issues as the use of containers with so-called smart seals, screening employees and information-sharing.

Over the last year in the Netherlands and in South America, I’ve seen for myself how important collaboration with the business community is. Container companies, shipping companies and other businesses are the ones that suffer if a container is held up on the quayside because of an inspection. This is especially the case if drugs are discovered in their cargo. Or, even worse: if they face threats from criminals. That’s why having an effective approach is in the interests of businesses and this is something they acknowledge themselves.

It also seems that this improved collaboration with private parties resulted in increased numbers of seizures last year.

Another encouraging development is the improvement of information-sharing with South America. First of all by posting liaison officers in Panama and Costa Rica. I went there late last year and, together with the liaison officer, had talks with ministers, Customs officers and entrepreneurs. I immediately noticed how incredibly useful it is that we now have a designated point of contact there. Our man in Panama can certainly expect to be busy. Of course, the same also applies to the liaison officer in Curaçao and the attaché in Suriname and Brazil.

Late last year, I also signed a Customs Treaty with Ecuador. This treaty will enable us to share information with Ecuador and support each other on Customs-related issues, including training and advice. This also matters a lot, because the more information you have, the more effectively you can tackle drug criminals. Here, in the Netherlands and also in Ecuador.

Only recently, we’ve seen once more how people in Ecuador are being confronted by extreme, relentless and destabilising violence from drug gangs. Thanks to our collaboration, we can make an important contribution to combating drug trafficking – here and over there.

The start of the New Year is the perfect time to look ahead. I’m very eager to do so, because there’s a lot in the pipeline.

We intend to continue to compartmentalise risky containers, enabling us to improve the security of containers that may be of interest to criminals. Shortening the period of notice for inspections and reducing the circle of people informed about inspections is expected to deliver results. We will be focusing more on underwater robots. We will continue to share scanned images with the Brazilian Customs and to pursue the collaboration with shipping companies that I mentioned earlier. There will also be a liaison officer at the National Targeting Center in the United States, enabling us to share even more intelligence.

We also hope to agree Customs treaties with even more countries and are examining the options for posting more Customs liaisons officers. And, of course, within a European context, we’re also actively participating in initiatives to tackle drug crime via our ports.

We are an open economy with a good infrastructure, in which businesses must be able to operate as freely as possible. This brings us numerous benefits, but it also makes us vulnerable to rogue elements who wish to profit from our good infrastructure.

We cannot allow drug criminals to misuse it. That’s why we need to make undiminished efforts in our continued battle for a safe society. A battle in which we must continue to deploy everything at our disposal. We will continue our focus on technical innovations, collaboration with businesses and cooperation with other countries. And, of course, we will continue to do this in partnership with our good neighbours. 

Now, Vincent, may I invite you to come forward?

Thank you for your attention.