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Antwerp is the top entry point for cocaine from South America into Europe.

At an all-time high last year, nearly 90 tons of cocaine was seized at this Belgium port town, but officials believe that this year could top that.

There is already such a backlog of seized cocaine that the authorities are struggling to keep up.

VICE reports on the unique drug issue, noting that the amount of cocaine being seized is so massive that police can’t burn it fast enough and are consequently worried that smugglers will steal it back.

Apparently, there is not nearly enough incinerator capacity to cope with this rising backlog of cocaine, dubbed “cocaine-berg”, being stored at secret depots near the port.

Belgian port authorities are terrified that the cocaine mountains will be targeted by organised crime gangs, who are known to have corrupt police and port workers working for them:

“We are urgently looking for additional incineration capacity,” said [Federal Justice Minister Vincent] Van Quickenborne.

He said bureaucracy around the destruction of cocaine means each batch has to be burned by appointment, and so it is a slow process. “The more cocaine you seize, the more time you need. And there is a lot of cocaine.”

Vincent Van Quickenborne – what a name, which also hints at urgency being his calling.

Belgian customs service spokesperson Francis Adyns told Antwerp newspaper Gazet van Antwerpen that a solution was “on the way”.

South Africa’s role in the cocaine trade is also rather fascinating, nicely chronicled by TimesLIVE in the podcast, Cape of Cocaine.

If our sneaky, nimble criminals and corrupt police force are anything to go by, a cocaine mountain like the one at Antwerp would be cleared in a matter of minutes.

[source:vice]