Customs officers at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport said on Thursday they have discovered fifteen kilograms of heroin in carpets from Pakistan. The drug had been hidden in the seams of the carpets.

In another find, a package whose waybill declared it to contain ceramics was actually filled with 1300 kilograms of cannabis from Thailand. No-one was arrested after the finds.

Cassave rolls
The airport set up a special task force to find drugs, called the CargoHarc team. It consists of Military Police detectives, border police and Tax Office inspectors. They are closely monitoring the freight passing through Schiphol Airport. The team is also responsible for thoroughly checking every individual passenger flying in from Surinam and the Netherlands Antilles, which used to be major sources of drugs smuggled into the Netherlands.

One of these so-called 100-percent controls revealed how a Surinamese man and a Dutch woman were using bread to smuggle cocaine into the country. A suspicious number of rolls were found in their luggage. The 33 rolls, of a kind often filled with mashed cassave root, turned out to be generously filled with ground cocaine. The couple were arrested when it turned out they were transporting 3 kilos of the drug in their food.

Coconuts
Airport personnel are increasingly finding drugs hidden in inventive places, such as clothes, beverages, food and audio equipment.

The airport's drugs finding team reported earlier this week they had discovered cocaine in a load of coconuts from the Dominican Republic. Rubber balloons had been inserted into the coconuts, which had subsequently been injected with liquid cocaine.

Personal use
The trafficking of heroin, cocaine or cannabis is illegal in the Netherlands. Possession of minimal quantities of the drugs for personal use is generally tolerated.