Spain busts record 9.5 tons of cocaine hidden in a banana shipment from Ecuador

Spanish customs agents have confiscated the country´s biggest cocaine haul to date – after finding 9.5 tons hidden in banana boxes originating from Ecuador.

The prolific amount of the drug was found Wednesday in a refrigerated container among a cargo shipment holding 1,080 boxes of bananas, said José Carlos Arobes, an official for the Spanish tax agency.

Prior to this seizure, Spain’s biggest cocaine bust was of 8.4 tons in 2018, also found in a supposed banana container in Algeciras.

The tax agency said the investigations began in July when police received information about a pending shipment of Colombian cocaine via Ecuador in August. 

Spanish National Police and Customs officers holding some of the cocaine found during the seizure

The organization behind the shipment operated through a banana exporting company in Machala, Ecuador, the agency said.

The cargo was due to be delivered in Portugal for later distribution throughout Europe.

No arrests have been made so far.

This comes two years after a pair of police sniffer dogs led Ecuadorian authorities to two containers where $333million worth of cocaine was hidden in between cans of tuna that were bound for Spain.

Ecuador National Police Commander Tanny Varela said narcotic cops confiscated 7.2 tons of cocaine during a search in June 2021 at the Guayaquíl Maritime Port before the freight containers were scheduled to be loaded onto a ship.

The bust was, at the time, the largest ever made by authorities at the Pacific coast port.

‘We have dealt a blow to criminal organizations in their illegal economy with (a loss of) $333million, since a kilo of cocaine in Europe has an approximate cost of $55,000,’ Varela said.