Five arrested as officials seize 300 kilos of cocaine from Urk trawler

Five people have been arrested after customs officials and police found 300 kilos of cocaine on board a Dutch trawler in the North Sea on Saturday, the Leeuwarder Courant said on Monday.

The trawler, named Z-181 or ‘Double Senior’, was owned by a father and son fishing team from the village of Urk, and was apparently used to fish for lobster and flat fish. It underwent a major refit a few years ago.

The paper said the cocaine found on board the ship had a street value of around €10m.

The Leeuwarder Courant said locals in Urk had for several years been puzzled by the extravagant spending of the family on their homes, despite the downturn in the fishing industry.

‘I asked myself what I was doing wrong,’ one fisherman told the paper. ‘Should I have been fishing in better place?’

The video shows the ship being brought into Harlingen port under escort for further examination.

Thank you for donating to DutchNews.nl.

We could not provide the Dutch News service, and keep it free of charge, without the generous support of our readers. Your donations allow us to report on issues you tell us matter, and provide you with a summary of the most important Dutch news each day.

Make a donation