Max Daly in Hamburg

Cocaine, corruption and bribes: the German port under siege by Europe’s criminal drug gangs

After seizure in Hamburg of 16 tonnes of high-purity powder, state attorney is accused of being on payroll of gang he was supposed to be prosecuting

In Hamburg’s spring sunshine, 200,000-tonne cargo ships almost a quarter of a mile long, piled high with the same weight in shipping containers, are docked quayside along the Elbe River. Cranes slowly offload the metal boxes packed with everything from raw materials to food and electronics, and, in some, cocaine.