Expensive hoard
July 22, 2010
Police in the western German city of Cologne have made the second largest drug seizure in the city's history, after confiscating 50 kilograms of cocaine packed in bananas on Wednesday.
According to a police report, the drugs - valued somewhere between four and five million euros - were discovered when workers were splitting up a consignment of bananas so that the fruit could ripen.
The report went on to say that customs agents in Antwerp, Belgium had failed to intercept the smuggled drugs on their way from Colombia; it remains unclear why the smugglers had not snatched the hoard before it arrived at the banana warehouse in Cologne.
A similar incident occurred in May, when packers in nearby Leverkusen found 20 kilograms of cocaine hidden under fruit.
Police have yet to determine who sent those drugs, or who was intended to receive them.
Author: Mark Caldwell, Gabriel Borrud (AP/dpa)
Editor: Rob Turner