WILLEMSTAD - The 33-year-old soldier from Helden, who is suspected of trying to import 70 kilos of cocaine from a naval base in Curaçao to the Netherlands, denies that. This became apparent on Monday during a first court hearing against the soldier in Arnhem.

The drugs were intercepted at the end of June in containers with duffle bales at the Parera naval base in Curaçao. A day later, the Limburg soldier was arrested in the Netherlands.

His DNA was on a plastic bag with cocaine in one of the bags, the public prosecutor revealed on Monday. The military police - when the man in Curaçao was being watched - also saw a PGP telephone for encrypted telephone traffic in his personal locker.