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A Dutch man has been sentenced to seven years in prison in a case involving hacks of port-logistics systems in the Netherlands and Belgium. SecurityWeek reports that the Amsterdam Court of Appeal rejected his challenge to the use of incriminating messages. The account is based on secondary reporting; the appellate judgment itself was not located.

What the appeal court decided

SecurityWeek’s January 13, 2026 report says the defendant, an unnamed 44-year-old Dutch national, was arrested in 2021 and convicted in 2022. He appealed, arguing that incriminating messages should not have been admitted. The Amsterdam Court of Appeal rejected that challenge, and he received a seven-year prison sentence. The report does not provide the court’s detailed reasoning or establish the precise disposition of each count.

How the port-logistics systems were reportedly accessed

SecurityWeek says the intrusions took place between September 2020 and April 2021 and involved logistics systems associated with Rotterdam and Barendrecht in the Netherlands, and Antwerp in Belgium. According to the report, a port-logistics company employee helped introduce remote-access malware using a USB stick. The malware reportedly enabled data theft from infected systems and interception of data in transit.

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Reported connection to cocaine smuggling

SecurityWeek links the hacking to the smuggling of 210 kilograms of cocaine into the Netherlands. The outlet says the drugs were concealed aboard a ship carrying wine. This is a case-specific quantity reported by SecurityWeek, not a figure independently confirmed here against the court judgment.

Other conduct reported in the case

Beyond the port-system intrusions, SecurityWeek says the defendant attempted to resell malware and tried to extort at least one victim. The report’s account therefore describes a case involving several alleged forms of criminal conduct, rather than a standalone unauthorized-access offense. It should not be treated as a general guide to sentencing for port hacking.

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What remains unverified

The detailed account available here comes from SecurityWeek, not the appellate decision. The primary Amsterdam Court of Appeal judgment was not located, so the court’s full evidentiary analysis, exact convictions, and legal reasoning cannot be independently established from the available account. The reported sentence and case details should be understood with that limitation.

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