Spanish police seize 13 tons of cocaine in bananas

Spanish police have made a record cocaine seizure after finding 13 metric tons of the drug hidden in a shipment of bananas in a container from Ecuador in the southern port of Algeciras.

The amount, discovered on October 14. breaks the previous record in Spain when 9.4 tons of cocaine were found in 2023, also in Algeciras, the fourth biggest container port in Europe.

"It is obvious that these 13 tons of cocaine were not only bound for the Spanish market. The Spanish market cannot handle so many drugs all at once. This drug was intended to be distributed throughout Europe," Antonio Martinez Duarte, head of the Central Narcotics Brigade of the National Police told reporters.

The Spanish police were on alert after a tip off from their counterparts in Ecuador, the world's largest banana exporter, that a suspicious cargo was on its way.

Martinez said the police arrested a woman, a partner in the company that was receiving the shipment, though two managers of the import company are on the run.

A woman believed to be a partner of the importing company was arrested in the central Spanish city of Toledo and two other suspects are on the run, police said.

Spain is a main entry point for drugs into Europe because of its close ties with former colonies in Latin America and its proximity to Morocco, a top cannabis producer.

Massive hauls of drugs have been hidden in banana shipments throughout Europe before. In February, British authorities said they had found more than 12,500 pounds of cocaine hidden in a shipment of bananas, shattering the record for the biggest single seizure of hard drugs in the country. Last August, customs agents in the Netherlands seized 17,600 pounds of cocaine found hidden inside crates of bananas in Rotterdam's port. Three months before that, a police dog sniffed out 3 tons of cocaine stashed in a case of bananas in the Italian port of Gioia Tauro.