Spanish customs agents have confiscated the country’s biggest cocaine haul to date – after finding 9.5 tons hidden in banana boxes originating from Ecuador.
The prolific amount of the drug was found Wednesday in a refrigerated container among a cargo shipment holding 1,080 boxes of bananas, said José Carlos Arobes, an official for the Spanish tax agency.
Police found boxes of cocaine marked with over 30 different logos – including Chevrolet, Louis Vuitton, and Tag Heuer – that correlated with the European criminal ring expected to receive the stash.
Prior to this seizure, Spain‘s biggest cocaine bust was of 8.4 tons in 2018, also found in a supposed banana container in Algeciras.
The tax agency said the investigations began in July when police received information about a pending shipment of Colombian cocaine via Ecuador in August.
This shows a package of cocaine among bananas from a seizure totalling 9,436 kilos, that were found hidden in a container from Ecuador
Spanish National Police and Customs officers holding some of the cocaine found during the seizure
The organization behind the shipment operated through a banana exporting company in Machala, Ecuador, the agency said.
They were able to ship up to 40 containers a month – some of them with drugs.
The drug cargo that was busted earlier this week was due to be delivered in Portugal for later distribution throughout Europe.
No arrests have been made so far.
Spanish police said in a statement: ‘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.’
This comes two years after a pair of police sniffer dogs led Ecuadorian authorities to two containers where $333million worth of cocaine was hidden in between cans of tuna that were bound for Spain.
Ecuador National Police Commander Tanny Varela said narcotic cops confiscated 7.2 tons of cocaine during a search in June 2021 at the Guayaquíl Maritime Port before the freight containers were scheduled to be loaded onto a ship.
The bricks of cocaine are seen among the banana shipment
The cocaine packages had different logos on them correlating to different gangs in Europe
The bust was, at the time, the largest ever made by authorities at the Pacific coast port.
‘We have dealt a blow to criminal organizations in their illegal economy with (a loss of) $333million, since a kilo of cocaine in Europe has an approximate cost of $55,000,’ Varela said.
Last month, DailyMail.com revealed how at least $1billion worth of cocaine has been seized from ‘narco subs’ en route to the US in the last eight years.
But anti-smuggling commanders believe around nine in 10 boats evade detection, meaning up to $9 billion worth of the drug may have entered the country via these vessels.
Criminal gangs are increasingly using drug-laden semi submersibles to transport vast quantities of illicit substances into the US as they seek to outwit maritime police.
Rows and rows of cocaine bricks were seized
The drug cargo that was busted earlier this week was due to be delivered in Portugal for later distribution throughout Europe
The boats, which are not fully submersible but can dip under water like submarines, have advanced significantly in recent years.
One former cartel member has predicted that missions, previously considered ‘kamikaze rituals’ for crews, will soon be run by drug traffickers using remote controls from the safety of their headquarters.
It comes after a Colombian man dubbed the ‘Prince of Submersibles’ was jailed in the US for more than 20 years for running a fleet of narco subs shipping cocaine into the country.
Official data on the number of narco-subs smuggling drugs into the US is yet to be released, but an audit of publicly available U.S. Coast Guard busts by DailyMail.com has found at least $1billion worth of cocaine has been seized from these boats since 2015.
Given that the audit was only of cases already made public, the real figure is likely to be much higher.
Maritime police insist they are getting better at intercepting the boats, but operation commanders have compared scouring the open ocean for 20 foot semi-submersibles to a pair of police cars patrolling the entire country.
Meanwhile, high-speed nautical chases are fraught with danger, with dramatic videos showing U.S. Coast Guardsmen leaping onto the hulls of narco-subs at full tilt before confronting smugglers face-to-face.