$21 Million Worth Of Cocaine Recovered From Banana Crates In Berlin – Customs Authorities Chalk It Up As ‘Logistical Mistake’
Berlin customs authorities have intercepted the largest cocaine delivery in the country till date. More than $21 million worth of cocaine was found neatly stashed within boxes of bananas delivered to Aldi supermarkets in and around Berlin.
Local police are quite baffled by the sheer volume of the delivery and the only explanation they have managed to come up with is it could have been a gross error on the part of the delivery company. Speaking about largest drug haul, police spokesman Stefan Redlich said,
“Apparently there was a logistical mistake somewhere along the line. Investigators were now trying to determine their intended destination.”
The bananas appear to have originated in Colombia. The complete consignment, along with innocent material was on a shipment to Hamburg. The police believe the cocaine was sent to Aldi by mistake.
The 386 Kg shipment is by far the biggest single cocaine find in the history of the German capital. However, smuggling of cocaine within the city has surprisingly escalated in the past few months. In fact, it is the second time in less than four months that a huge haul of cocaine has been found neatly hidden in banana crates at the discount chain’s stores in Berlin. Additionally, early last year, the store’s workers had discovered 140 kilograms of the drug.
Though the quantity of the drug haul varies significantly, the drug makers haven’t altered their ways of shipping the cocaine. Each time the drugs were seized, they were found to have been hidden among banana crates. Though this time around,the boxes full of neatly packed cocaine were merely labeled as bananas, a similar consignment seized just last month was concealed a little better.
While this consignment was obviously meant for wholesale distributors, the consignment seized last month may have been meant for individuals. These conclusions can be drawn from the fact that the 386 Kg of cocaine was wrapped in a packing weighing a kilo each, whereas the earlier one had smaller packets concealed in plastic bananas. Additionally, the earlier drug bust evolved into a treasure hunt involving a map and some clever use of mobile phones and coded messages.
Colombian drug cartels are the world’s largest manufacturers and suppliers of cocaine and are generally quite powerful and influential. It seems one of the cartels assumed it was easier to hide the cocaine in bananas to avoid detection, but they failed to route the shipment correctly, resulting in its seizure by Berlin’s law enforcement officials.
[Image Credit | Soeren Stache/DPA/AFP]
