Authorities find record-breaking 9.5 tons of cocaine in banana shipment meant to go to 30 drug rings
Spanish authorities found a record-breaking 9.5 tons of cocaine in a shipment from Ecuador that was meant to go to 30 European drug rings.
The large shipment was discovered on Wednesday in a refrigerated banana container in the southern port of Algeciras.
The boxes were marked with 30 logos that correlated with different European criminal rings that were expected to get the coveted drug.
Police did not name any of the organizations.
“This operation was an unprecedented blow to one of the world’s most important criminal organizations in cocaine distribution, targeting major criminal networks in Europe,” police said in a statement.
The criminal organization in Ecuador had a large network to ship drugs to Spain, mainly to the ports of Algeciras and Vigo in the northwest, through an international banana trading company located in Ecuador’s main banana port, Machala.
They were able to ship up to 40 containers a month, some of them with drugs, police said.
The boxes were supposed to hold 1,080 bananas, according to Jose Carlos Arobes, a senior official for the Spanish tax agency.
An investigation began in July after police received information about an incoming shipment of Colombian cocaine coming from Ecuador in August.
The shipment was supposed to move to Portugal after coming through Spain.
No arrests have been made.
Prior to the shipment, the largest shipment of cocaine the country had seen was 8.4 tons in 2018, which was also found in a banana shipment.
With Post wires
