Drug smugglers accidentally deliver £68million shipment of cocaine to supermarkets – World News

The narcotics had reportedly arrived from Colombia via Europe’s second-biggest port in Hamburg and were delivered to Czech shops before the criminals had a chance to intercept them

Czech police seized over 907kg of cocaine with a street value of around £68million after it was mistakenly delivered to supermarkets hidden in shipments of bananas.

Workers at several supermarkets across the country discovered powder-filled wrappers in the crates of bananas before alerting authorities as the entire shipment was confiscated by police.

Almost 2,200 pounds of cocaine were collected after the shipment arrived via Hamburg – Europe’s second busiest port – which was reportedly from Colombia.

“Supermarket employees found shaped cubes of cocaine in boxes of bananas this afternoon,” police said on Twitter, accompanied by pictures of some of the cocaine confiscated.

Supermarket employees in the capital Prague and the towns of Jicin and Rychnov nad Kneznou first reported the suspicious blocks, after which the police dispatched canine units to investigate.

Czech police said in a statement: “Criminal investigators have discovered that goods of the same batch have been distributed to several other locations in the Czech Republic.

“Therefore in cooperation with the [Customs Administration of the Czech Republic] and other facilities, it is currently carrying out inspections of these places and other measures.”

Jakub Frydrych, the head of the police’s anti-drug unit, told Czech public radio that the cocaine was likely to have come from Central America.

Czech police added that they now want to work with international authorities to advance their investigation. They said: “Information about broadcasts is kept outside the territory of the Czech Republic, for this reason we will use the Institute for International Police and Judicial Cooperation.

“The case has been taken over by the National Drug Control Center, which will be conducting the investigation. We will provide more information as soon as possible.”

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in its most recent report, published in 2021, that “cocaine production reached record levels in 2019, although growth slowed to an estimated 1,784 tonnes (expressed at 100 percent purity ) in 2019, the highest level ever recorded.”

The UNODC added: “In 2019, Colombia continued to account for the majority of the world’s coca acreage.”

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