MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Belgian Customs seize 547 kilos of cocaine in container shipped from Montevideo

The drugs involved a container in the vessel Grande Nigeria, from the Grimaldi Group, during February according to Uruguayan prosecution sources.

Customs officials in Antwerp, Belgium seized some 547 kilos of cocaine inside a container with rice that left the port of Montevideo. The catch took place at the end of February and involved the vessel Grande Nigeria, belonging to the Grimaldi Group, according to Uruguayan prosecution sources.

 Apparently the half ton of drug was found in the container GCNU1402270, loaded with rice, which was scanned before leaving Montevideo for Europe, with no surprises. However prosecutors believe the drug could have been introduced in the high seas, since the container arrived in Antwerp with the security seals violated, according to Belgian customs.

However this is not the first time the Italian flagged vessel has been caught with concealed drug. In May 2023, 1.2 tons of cocaine where seized from the same vessel while she was in loading operations in the port of Montevideo. Likewise in February 2022, another 200 kilos of cocaine where found distributed in different cars the vessel was transporting. She had left the port of Paranagua in southern Brazil and was carrying some 600 passenger cars to be delivered in Uruguay and Argentina. In July 2019 Grande Nigeria remained for several months in Dakar, following the seizure of 790 kilos of cocaine by Senegal Customs officials, also hidden in vehicles that had been loaded the port of Paranagua.

In August 2018 in Brazil’s main port terminal, Santos, some 1.200 kilos of cocaine were discovered distributed among 32 bails which were loaded to Grande Nigeria at sea from a smaller vessel. A week later another Grimaldi vessel, Grande Francia, heading for Antwerp, was assaulted some 15 kilometers off the port of Santos. Apparently she was carrying 1.3 tons of cocaine, Likewise back in March 2021, the same vessel had 800 kilos of cocaine seized in the Port of Montevideo, distributed in a similar way, among the pick-ups she was contracted to deliver.

Other Grimaldi vessels have been involved in large cocaine seizures, such as the 4,5 tons in Hamburg port, July 2019, for which the Uruguayan citizen Martin Mutio was sent to prison for allowing his farm to be used as a deposit for the drugs shipment. Another is a shipment of 417 kilos of drugs seized in the port of Montevideo in a container with greasy wool destined for Antwerp