Russia mentioned Wednesday it had seized 1,800 kilos of cocaine hidden beneath a cargo of bananas, calling it its largest bust of medication from Latin America this 12 months.
Russia’s customs service, working collectively with the FSB safety service, mentioned it had uncovered a batch price “more than 12 billion rubles ($153 million)” stashed in banana containers.
The cocaine packages — disguised in briquettes bearing the label of a French luxurious vogue model — have been found in a “hidden cavity” beneath the bananas, it added. In a submit on social media, the Federal Customs Service of Russia launched pictures of the cocaine and mentioned service canines helped sniff out the hidden medicine.
Russia mentioned Wednesday it had seized 1,800 kilos of cocaine hidden beneath a cargo of bananas, calling it its largest bust of medication from Latin America this 12 months.
Federal Customs Service of Russia
Customs officers mentioned they carried out the bust after a tip-off from “foreign colleagues about the intention of a South American criminal group to organize a smuggling channel for cocaine supplies to Russia.”
It mentioned an investigation had been opened into large-scale drug trafficking, a cost that in Russia carries most penalty of life imprisonment.
Russia has a zero-tolerance coverage towards drug use and smuggling, handing heavy sentences to these convicted of trafficking small quantities of narcotics — together with foreigners.
Drug traffickers are more and more trying to the nation as a transit hub, partly as a result of the Ukrainian port of Odesa has turn into inaccessible because of the warfare in Ukraine, the paper mentioned.
Cocaine hid in banana shipments
Cocaine has been discovered hidden in banana shipments throughout the globe in current months.
In Could, staff at a Norwegian fruit distributor found a packet of cocaine in a field of bananas, alerting customs officers who discovered a stash of 147 kilos.
Final December, authorities within the Dominican Republic confiscated almost 9.5 tons of cocaine from a banana cargo on the nation’s most vital seaport.
In August 2024, customs brokers seized greater than 200 kilos of cocaine on the port in Greece from a ship carrying the fruit. The month earlier than that, police canines in Ecuador helped discover greater than six tons of cocaine hidden in a banana cargo headed to Germany.
In March final 12 months, Bulgarian customs officers confiscated about 170 kilograms of cocaine from a ship transporting bananas from Ecuador.
The month earlier than that, British authorities mentioned they discovered greater than 12,500 kilos of cocaine hidden in a cargo of the fruit, breaking the file for the largest single seizure of laborious medicine within the nation.
Extra from CBS Information
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