Liquid cocaine concealed in bottles of soap was seized at the port of Antwerp in August after a container arriving from Colombia was flagged as suspicious, prosecutors said on Sunday.
The shipment contained 450 boxes of soap, each weighing 12kg. The total amount of cocaine has not yet been established.
Belgium’s federal judicial police in Antwerp received information about a potentially suspect container and launched further checks.
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Investigators found that the container had been unloaded at quay 730 in the port of Antwerp. It had arrived from Colombia and was due to be transported by road to Croatia.
Customs officers seized the container on 24 August for a detailed inspection.
When several bottles of liquid soap were examined, a very strong chemical smell quickly spread, according to the Antwerp public prosecutor’s office.
Initial analyses immediately confirmed the presence of cocaine in liquid form. Prosecutors said the suspicious liquid in the bottles was almost impossible to distinguish from liquid soap.
They added that crystallisation occurs at low temperatures. An investigation has been opened, and prosecutors said the container numbers appear to have been falsified.
