A container filled with 90,000 bottles of vodka believed to be for sanctions-hit North Korea has been seized by Dutch customs agents, officials said Tuesday.
Three-thousand cases of the spirit were found by officers at the port of Rotterdam aboard a ship owned by China’s Cosco Shipping, said Roul Velleman, a spokesman for the Dutch customs agency.
Velleman said officers decided to check the container based on a “risk profile” provided by the Foreign Ministry.
“We follow a risk profile and we had information that this container could be carrying something,” Velleman said. “And it was right. It was vodka — destination China, probably to go to North Korea.”
North Korea has been slapped with a number of international sanctions, which include a ban on the import of certain luxury goods, for its continued ballistic missile testing and violations of UN resolutions.