Spanish authorities seized almost 6 tons of cocaine onboard a container ship, in the Port of Algeciras, the largest seizure of this drug type in Spain so far, the country’s interior ministry announced. The value of this quantity is estimated at 210 million euros.
As explained, the drug trafficking organization had carefully camouflaged 5,883 kilograms of cocaine, distributed in 5,299 pills, “perfectly hidden” among the boxes of a shipment of bananas onboard the vessel ‘Banak’, coming from Colombia and heading to El Prat.
The importation of these containers was carried out by a fruit and vegetable distribution company for the Iberian Peninsula and other areas of the European Union whose registered name is in Barcelona.
“It had been perfectly placed in such a way in all the boxes that the opening of any of them and withdrawal of the first bunches of bananas did not allow to visualize the cocaine hidden in its bottom,” the ministry explained.
Three people have been arrested and two other people are being investigated as a result from the drug seizure. All have been arrested as alleged members of a criminal organization and two crimes of smuggling and drug trafficking.
The apprehension carried out in Algeciras is the largest amount intervened in a container ship in Spain and the second largest in the history of drug trafficking in the country in all means of transport. Investigation is underway.
The following video depicts the quantity of the seizure:
