One in five people arrested for retrieving smuggled drugs from containers in Dutch ports in 2023 was a minor, according to figures from national statistics agency CBS.
The study found that so-called “uithalers” – runners sent into port terminals to collect cocaine hidden in shipping containers – are typically younger than other drug suspects, more likely to have grown up in single-parent households and more likely to live in neighbourhoods with higher crime rates.
The under-23s are at notably higher risk of being recruited, the researchers said.
Researchers link the rising use of minors to legislation that came into force in January 2022, which made unauthorised entry to port terminals a specific criminal offence carrying up to a year in prison.
Police and prosecutors have warned that the tougher penalties may have pushed criminal networks to recruit vulnerable under-18s, who face lighter sentencing and are more willing to take risks for smaller rewards.
The arrest of runners in the port of Rotterdam has fallen steeply in recent years as security has tightened, but some of the trade has shifted to Antwerp, where a record number of Dutch teenagers were detained last year.
Belgian police say Dutch criminal groups are far more likely than their Belgian counterparts to send minors into ports to fetch drugs.
