$ 153 million cocaine found hidden in sending banana in Russia

Russia said Wednesday that he had seized 1,800 pounds of cocaine hidden under a shipment of bananas, calling him his largest drug bust in Latin America this year.

The Russian customs service, which works together with the FSB security service, said it had discovered a lot that was worth “more than 12 billion rubles ($ 153 million)” hidden in banana containers.

Cocaine packages, disguised as briquettes with the label of a French luxury fashion brand, were discovered in a “hidden cavity” under bananas, he added. In a publication on social networks, the Federal Customs Service of Russia published images of cocaine and said that service dogs helped smell hidden drugs.

Customs officials said they carried out the bust after a notice of “foreign colleagues about the intention of a South American criminal group to organize a smuggling channel for cocaine supplies to Russia.”

He said that an investigation in large -scale drug trafficking had been opened, a position that in Russia entails the maximum perpetual chain penalty.

Russia has a zero tolerance policy towards drug use and smuggling, delivering heavy sentences to those convicted of small amounts of narcotics, including foreigners.

Cocaine smuggling in Russia has increased in the last two years, according to the Izvestia newspaper of Russia.

Drug traffickers are increasingly looking for the country as a transit center, partly because the Ukrainian port of Odess War in UkraineSaid the newspaper.

Hidden cocaine in banana shipments

Cocaine has been hidden in banana shipments worldwide in recent months.

In May, the employees of a Norwegian fruit distributor discovered a cocaine package in a bananas box, alerting customs officials who found a 147 kilos stash.

Last December, the authorities of the Dominican Republic confiscated Almost 9.5 tons of cocaine From a banana shipment in the most important sea port in the country.

In August 2024, customs agents seized more than 200 pounds of cocaine In the port of Greece from a ship that carries the fruit. The previous month, police dogs in Ecuador helped find More than six tons of cocaine Hidden in a banana shipment he went to Germany.

In March last year, Bulgarian customs officials confiscated about 170 kilograms of cocaine from a ship carrying bananas from Ecuador.

The previous month, the British authorities said they found More than 12,500 pounds of cocaine hidden in a fruit shipment, breaking the record of the largest seizure of hard drugs in the country.

• Drug traffic
• Russia
• Cocaine