MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Drug trafficking scandal: How cocaine made it from Uruguay to Belgium undetected?

The discovery was made by Belgian Customs on December 28

A shipment of 22,320 units of Portezuelo brand budines and alfajores (La Plata river sweets), along with 1,122 bottles of vermouth, originating from Uruguay and bound for Belgium, was found to contain 2.16 tons of cocaine. The discovery was made by Belgian Customs on December 28, sparking an investigation into the oversight during its transit through the Uruguayan port.

The cargo, valued at $48,256, had an unusual route from purchase to shipment, passing through the first private Free Zone in Uruguay, Zonamerica, before reaching the Port of Montevideo. Despite several red flags, the cargo received a “green channel” and underwent only a routine scanner inspection.

Jaime Borgiani, the Director of National Customs, acknowledged the limitations of the scanner, stating, “The scanner is not miraculous, and the one we have is not one of the best.”

The suspicious aspects of the shipment, such as being products not typically exported to Europe from Uruguay, a third-party export rather than the producer, and the high-risk destination of Belgium, were not flagged during customs checks.

Zonamerica business park was a potential point of contamination and was part of the cargo's journey, where it underwent two controls—one from the National Customs Directorate and another from the Zonamerica free trade zone's customs. However, the presence of drugs was not detected.

The goods were bought from a distributor or supermarket chain, not directly from Portezuelo, and the responsibility for export lay with a company offering logistics and customs services. The company claimed that contamination occurred outside its control and could not pinpoint the exact point in the logistics chain.

The investigation is ongoing, led by the Office of the Specialized Prosecutor for Drug Trafficking, Stella Llorente. The case raises concerns about the efficacy of cargo inspections and the need for heightened vigilance in international shipments.