Spanish police seize cocaine inside hollowed-out pineapples

[Night Hunter]

 

Spanish police seized 200 kilos of cocaine found inside hollowed-out pineapples that arrived by ship from Central America, the interior ministry said on Sunday.

The drug-stuffed fruit was found among 10 shipping containers filled with pineapples that arrived in the southern port of Algeciras, one of Europe's largest ports, the ministry said in a statement.

"Among the thousands of fresh pineapples inside the containers, they found fruit that had been hollowed out and stuffed with drugs and then covered with a yellow wax that simulated the colour of pineapple pulp," the statement said.

The pineapples arrived from an undisclosed country in Central America and were en route to two companies, one based in Madrid and the other in Sant Quirze del Valles near Barcelona.

Both companies were said to be run by Spanish nationals of Colombian origin.

• Cocaine trafficking arrests target trans-Atlantic crime families

The police detained three people as part of their investigation and have not ruled out more arrests.

Last year, police in Algeciras seized 2.5 tonnes of cocaine hidden inside a shipment of pineapples arriving from Costa Rica – one of the biggest ever seizures of the drug in Spain.

Spain's close ties to its former colonies in Latin America have made it a key entry point for cocaine smuggled across the Atlantic to Europe.

Smugglers have used increasingly weird methods to get the drug past Spanish customs.

 

 

• Drug gang smuggle cocaine disguised as shoes

In recent years police have found cocaine inside breast implants, a wig, a plaster cast encasing a man's broken leg as well as inside a 42-piece crockery set, consisting of bowls, plates and saucers.

 

Source http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

 

[Okkeboe]

There was same kind of news about banana containers that were shipped from Columbia to Germany this year. 
 

"More than €15m (£11m) worth of cocaine turned up Monday in boxes of bananas delivered to supermarkets in and around Berlin, police said.

Staff working at 14 Aldi stores reported the stashes of narcotics tucked in the produce deliveries from Colombia, which police believe ended up at the shops by accident. 

Police said the 386-kilo shipment was the biggest single cocaine find in the history of the German capital."

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/

People will always find new, creative ways to do illegal business no matter what.