U.K. police find $568 million of cocaine hidden in bananas, shattering drug-seizure record
British authorities on Friday said they had found more than 12,500 pounds of cocaine hidden in a shipment of bananas, shattering the record for the biggest single seizure of hard drugs in the country.
The National Crime Agency said 5.7 tons of cocaine were found in a container of bananas at the port of Southampton on England’s south coast on Feb. 8. The haul of drugs had an estimated street value of $568 million, the agency said.
Before the massive bust, the previous largest seizures of drugs in the U.K. was a 3.7-ton haul of cocaine found in Southampton two years ago, and before that, 3.2 tons discovered on a tug boat in Scotland in 2015, the agency said.
The packages of cocaine found this month were concealed in a cargo of bananas which had been transported from South America, and officials believe the drugs were headed to Hamburg, Germany, “for onward delivery.”
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