Spanish National Police seize 13 tons of cocaine hidden in banana containers

Nov. 7 (UPI) - Spain's national police said Thursday it seized a record-breaking shipment of cocaine that was being smuggled into the country hidden in banana containers.

More than 13 tons of cocaine was being shipped from Guayaquil, Ecuador to the Spanish port of Algeciras on Oct. 14. The shipment was intercepted because the Ecuadoran export company had been linked in that country to drug trafficking.

A discrepancy in the shipment's contents led authorities to take a more thorough look at the shipment where they had the cocaine.

"The drugs were traveling in a container that, coming from Ecuador, was transporting a load of bananas addressed to a Spanish importer that had been receiving, for years, large quantities of fruit from Ecuador, which made the analysis and inspection of shipment extremely difficult," the National Police said in a translated statement .

"The cocaine was found in packages that filled each box of bananas and, in addition, fruit screens had been arranged to hide the drugs."

The National Police said the seizure was a joint operation with the country's tax agency in cooperation with the Ecuador national police.

During the investigation, the National Police conducted five searches into homes and offices in Madrid and Alicante, arresting the partner of the import company in Toledo. That person was not named. Police said they were searching for two others.

"It's obvious that these [13 tons] of cocaine were not only bound for the Spanish market," Antonio Jesus Martinez, head of the central narcotics brigade with the National Police, said, according to The Guardian.

"The Spanish market cannot handle so many drugs all at once. These drugs were intended to be distributed throughout Europe."