Spanish Police Confiscate Cocaine-Filled Pineapples In Major Drug Bust

How many pineapples does it take to hide 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of cocaine? Spanish police now have that answer after a major drug bust.

According to the Huffington Post, the cocaine pineapples arrived in the southwestern port of Algeciras from an unnamed Central American country in 11 shipping containers.

The Ministry of the Interior described the bizarre shipment in a statement.

“Among the thousands of fresh pineapples inside the containers, they found fruit that had been hollowed out and stuffed with drugs and then covered with a yellow wax that simulated the color of pineapple pulp.”

Authorities detained three suspects in connection to the cocaine bust.

The shipment was on its way to two companies according to the Telegraph – one in Madrid, another in Sant Quirze del Valles near Barcelona. The companies are reportedly run by Spanish nationals of Colombian origins.

Why pineapples?

As the Telegraph pointed out, international drug enforcement has beefed up in the past several years, forcing drug dealers to become increasingly creative. Pineapples seem humdrum compared to come other attempts, including breast implants, wigs, even a man’s cast for a broken leg.

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, one woman even found cocaine in her Nature Valley granola bar. It’s not clear how or why it got there.

As for the cocaine pineapples trick, it’s actually been tried before.

Last year, at the same port, Algeciras, authorities found 2.5 tons of cocaine hidden in a shipment of pineapples from Costa Rica. It was one of Spain’s biggest drug busts, but apparently not enough to deter dealers from trying it again.

In this case, the government has not said the name of the exporting country. That might be for the best.

Business Insider reports that a Venezuelan official plans to sue Spain and the U.S. for calling his country a “cocaine hub,” and particularly for implicating him.

The conflict stemmed from a news article claiming the Venezuelan parliament chief Diosdado Cabello, and several other officials, were linked to the drug trade. It went on to say Cabello’s former security chief had already fled to the U.S. with proof of his boss’s cocaine connections.

Cabello talked about his lawsuits in a television interview.

“I’ve already sued here in Venezuela, but I’m also going to sue in Spain, and I’m also going to sue in the United States. It cannot be that in Spain the press can do this — smear someone without any type of proof. In the United States, this cannot happen.”

For the cocaine-filled pineapples, it might just be best if the authorities say it was from Central America, and leave it at that.

[Image Credit: Abejaobrera/Wikimedia Commons]