Police in the western German city of Hildesheim have discovered around 190 kilogrammes of cocaine hidden in banana crates delivered to a fruit dealer in the city, authorities revealed on Friday.
The drugs have an estimated street value of around six million euros (6.5 million U.S.dollars), according to the State Criminal Police Office in the German state of Lower Saxony, which announced the seizure.
The raid took place in mid-April and targeted an international drug trafficking effort, police said.
Workers at the Hildesheim fruit business reportedly noticed unusual packages in a banana box while inspecting a large shipment of bananas being prepared for a chain food retailer.
Police officers and customs investigators in Hildesheim then spent three days searching several thousand boxes of bananas and discovered a total of 185 packages of cocaine.
According to the investigations, the banana shipment, which consisted of several containers, came from Colombia.
It had been imported via the port of Hamburg on a container ship in mid-April.
The drug squad then began inspections of banana deliveries in other parts of Germany.
One week after the discovery in Hildesheim, packages of cocaine were found in several branches of the same grocery chain in Berlin and the surrounding area. READ ALSO:
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In this case, several thousand boxes of bananas had also been received by a fruit retailer in located in eastern Germany and delivered to the stores shortly afterwards.
Police are still investigating the deliveries and connections to organised drug smuggling. (dpa/NAN)
