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Giant cocaine haul found stashed in banana boxes

Customs officials in Norway have seized 145 kilograms of cocaine hidden inside crates of bananas in one of the largest drugs seizures the country has ever seen.

Published: 6 January 2014 08:16 CET
Giant cocaine haul found stashed in banana boxes
Bags of cocaine were stashed beneath a thin layer of bananas - Norwegian Customs
The ten crates, part of a delivery of bananas from Equador, had a thin layer of bananas on top, beneath which bags of cocaine worth 50 million kroner ($8m) were hidden. 
 
"It's enormous. This single seizure is as big as everything customs has seized in the last three years put together," Bjørn Røse, director of Norway's customs authority told the Dagbladet newspaper. 
 
The crates were found on December 10 in a warehouse run by Bama, one of Norway's largest fruit trading companies, where the bananas had been left to mature. 
 
Police believe that the cocaine was loaded in Equador and that neither Bama, the Norwegian company which imported the fruit, nor the company which transported it were aware of its contents. 
 
In June last year Danish customs found 200 kilograms of cocaine hidden in banana crates kept in the warehouses of the Coop supermarket chain. In October, British police seized 850 kilograms of cocaine hidden among bananas in a cargo from Colombia. 
 

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DRUGS

How drug dealers in Germany are adapting to new corona reality

The chief of the German bureau of investigation (BKA) said drug dealers had learned new ways to sell their wares, stating that “we haven't noticed a shortage on the market".

Published: 9 September 2020 10:51 CEST
Updated: 9 September 2020 16:55 CEST
How drug dealers in Germany are adapting to new corona reality
Drug dealers adapted to the coronavirus crisis. Photo: DPA

Many industries have been hit hard in the coronavirus crisis. But it appears drug dealers adapted quickly during the lockdown, even while doing home office.

Move to online and delivery

Presenting his agency's annual report on drug criminality on Tuesday, BKA boss Holger Münch said that dealers had quickly adapted to the coronavirus by offering more service online.

Narcotics purchased via the internet and delivered by post – often to a packet shop – had increased during the pandemic.

Smuggling by air and sea continued at a constant level throughout the crisis in comparison with recent years, he said.

SEE ALSO: 10 things you should know about illegal drug use in Germany

'Cocaine not elite drug anymore'

Münch made the comments during the presentation of the annual drug report, which showed an increase in drug criminality for the ninth year in a row last year.

Criminality in connection with cocaine rose most sharply, increasing by 12 percent. “We've come to the conclusion that this isn’t an elite drug anymore,'' said Münch.

The largest quantity of cocaine ever seized in Germany was discovered by customs in July 2019 during a routine check in the port of Hamburg.

A container of soybeans, which was to be transported from Uruguay via Hamburg to Belgium, contained 4.5 tonnes of cocaine. The estimated street value was almost one billion euros.

Drug use increasing

Meanwhile, 31 illegal drug labs were busted nationwide in 2019, a 63 percent increase on 2018.

In total, the number of drug offences registered in 2019 rose by 2.6 percent compared to the previous year to 359,747. By far the most offences were related to cannabis. 

“Instead of wasting resources on prosecuting users, the federal and state governments should take targeted action against organized drug crime and the black market,” said FDP drug policy expert Wieland Schinnenburg. 

Schinnenburg proposed starting the controlled distribution of cannabis to adults, which would free up police resources to go after more serious crimes.

Münch said that he was not against conducting a debate on liberalization. But he cautioned that he had not seen evidence to suggest either that legalization leads to lower consumption or that it weakens the power of organized crime networks.

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