Miraculous fishing in the middle of bananas… At the port of Rotterdam (Netherlands), more than eight tonnes of cocaine were seized in a container of bananas from Ecuador, the Dutch prosecutor’s office announced on Thursday.
The drugs were seized on July 13, but for the purposes of the investigation the information was withheld. The resale value is estimated at 600 million euros, it is the largest drug seizure ever made in the port.
“A total of 8,064 one-kilo packets of cocaine were extracted from 12 pallets of bananas,” prosecutors said, adding that the drugs had been destroyed. The container had arrived in Rotterdam via Panama, they added.
Numbers on the rise
Dutch customs seized more than 29,702 kg of drugs in the first half of 2023, more than the same period last year (22,009 kg), according to figures published in July by the authorities.
“Once again we have succeeded (…) in dealing a serious blow to the drug traffickers in the port”, greeted the director of customs in Rotterdam, Peter van Buijtenen, quoted on the account X (ex-Twitter) of the authority, calling the seizure “enormous”.