In November, logistics’ employees found several suspicious packages in boxes of bananas and called the police. The GER confirmed the suspicions: cocaine. The officers searched over 1,100 boxes of tropical fruit and found over 120 packages with the white powder.
Unknown criminals used the international banana transport as a hiding place for the cocaine. Apparently, they failed to retrieve the drugs off the ship, on arrival at its European port of destination, Rotterdam. The GER investigators do not have reason to believe that the import and export company is involved in smuggling and drug trafficking. However, GER is aware of several similar cases in German federal states in the recent past.
Thanks to the help of the employees, the Cologne Police and the Customs Office in Essen prevented that the high-quality cocaine, worth almost five million Euros, reached the streets. The GER continues to investigate the drugs smuggling.
Source: Cologne Police, Polizei Köln