Cocaine In Banana Shipment Seized In Spain Labelled ‘Fiji’

Spanish police have made a re-cord cocaine seizure after finding 13 metric tonnes of the drug hidden in a shipment of bananas in a container from Ecuador in the south-ern port of Algeciras last Thursday, November 7.

Spain’s Policía Nacional said the seizure was the second largest recorded in Europe and one of the largest any-where in the world.

A number of the packages seized by Spanish Police were labelled Fiji.

While it has not been established where the packages were headed, Spain’s head of the Central Narcotics Brigade of the National Police told international media that it was obvious that the 13 tonnes of cocaine were not only bound for the Spanish market.

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.

Spanish 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.

Thirteen metric tonnes of drugs hidden in a shipment of bananas in a container.

Minister for Home Affairs Pio Tikoduadua told this masthead that while no one knew why it was labelled Fiji and where it was heading, he was glad it was intercepted by Police before it went further.

“This is part of the Interpol work with police,” Mr Tikoduadua said.

“I’m glad it has been discovered before it gotten to anybody, this shows that our combined work and partner-ship are working,” he said.

“That’s how we should handle this drug trade, it’s impossible to stop but we can manage.”

He added that no one could stop the drug trade from happening.

“It’s impossible but we can manage it to a safe level and for that we are working with our partners to keep Fiji safe.”

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