WILLEMSTAD – Member of Parliament Juniël Carolina of the governing party MFK has proposed to sell seized drugs in Curaçao to the Netherlands. He did so in a debate about the Coast Guard, which has the duty of intercepting drug shipments.
Carolina, a Member of Parliament since 2019, calculated for his fellow parliamentarians that the sale to the Netherlands of the 29,000 kilos of cocaine seized in 2022 could have yielded more than 1.6 billion guilders on the basis of the 'street value'. “I think, it makes money”, he emphasized his argument. Faction members responded in agreement. Only after the insistence of the stunned opposition did Minister of Justice Hato (also MFK) react negatively.
The reason for the debate was the division of costs for the Coast Guard. Curaçao contributes 16%, Aruba 11% and Sint Maarten 4%. The remaining 69% is accounted for by the Netherlands. The MFK/PNP cabinet Pisas wants to reduce the Curaçao share. In addition, it wants to withdraw the contribution of 7 million guilders promised by the previous government to replace and expand Coast Guard equipment.