According to Europol, 17 suspected cocaine kingpins have been arrested in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany in connection with a record bust in the ports of Hamburg and Antwerp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a three-country operation, federal and regional police raided on more than 35 locations and seized four apartments, four autos, electronic equipment, watches, and cash worth 5.5 million euros ($5.9 million).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Hague-based agency said in a statement that 11 people were arrested in Germany, 5 in Belgium, and 3 in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This operation targeted a large-scale trafficking network\u2019s drug and money-laundering infrastructure throughout Europe and South America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The arrests were made in connection with an investigation into the seizure of 34 firearms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After taking down the SKY ECC communications platform, police were able to uncover the cocaine business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The network, which is virtually entirely used by organized crime gangs to communicate via encrypted telephones, was hacked last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In February, dozens of more people were detained in a major operation coordinated by Europol in six European nations in connection with the same investigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
According to Europol, 17 suspected cocaine kingpins have been arrested in Belgium, the Netherlands, and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":14987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[215],"tags":[416],"class_list":["post-14986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","tag-drug"],"yoast_head":"\n