{"id":213735,"date":"2023-08-28T03:13:50","date_gmt":"2023-08-28T03:13:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bestwnews.com\/?p=213735"},"modified":"2023-08-28T03:13:50","modified_gmt":"2023-08-28T03:13:50","slug":"spain-busts-9-5-tons-of-cocaine-hidden-in-banana-shipment-from-ecuador","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestwnews.com\/world-news\/spain-busts-9-5-tons-of-cocaine-hidden-in-banana-shipment-from-ecuador\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain busts 9.5 tons of cocaine hidden in banana shipment from Ecuador"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Spain busts record 9.5 tons of cocaine hidden in a banana shipment from Ecuador<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The prolific amount of the drug was found Wednesday in Algeciras, Spain<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><b>Cocaine was found in a refrigerated\u00a0container among boxes of bananas\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>It&#8217;s the biggest cocaine seizure Spanish authorities have undertaken\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> Spanish customs agents have confiscated the country&#8217;s biggest cocaine haul to date &#8211; after finding 9.5 tons hidden in banana boxes originating from Ecuador.<\/p>\n<p>The prolific amount of the drug was found Wednesday in a refrigerated container among a cargo shipment holding 1,080 boxes of bananas, said Jos\u00e9 Carlos Arobes, an official for the Spanish tax agency.<\/p>\n<p>Police found boxes of cocaine marked with over 30 different logos &#8211; including Chevrolet, Louis Vuitton, and Tag Heuer &#8211; that correlated with the European criminal ring expected to receive the stash.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Prior to this seizure, Spain&#8217;s biggest cocaine bust was of 8.4 tons in 2018, also found in a supposed banana container in Algeciras.<\/p>\n<p>The tax agency said the investigations began in July when police received information about a pending shipment of Colombian cocaine via Ecuador in August.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/08\/27\/23\/74778309-12451487-image-a-9_1693176641501.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>This shows a package of cocaine among bananas from a seizure totalling 9,436 kilos, that were found hidden in a container from Ecuador<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/08\/27\/23\/74778295-12451487-image-a-1_1693176617850.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Spanish National Police and Customs officers holding some of the cocaine found during the seizure<\/p>\n<p>The organization behind the shipment operated through a banana exporting company in Machala, Ecuador, the agency said.<\/p>\n<p>They were able to ship up to 40 containers a month &#8211; some of them with drugs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The drug cargo that was busted earlier this week was due to be delivered in Portugal for later distribution throughout Europe.<\/p>\n<p>No arrests have been made so far.<\/p>\n<p>Spanish police said in a statement: &#8216;This operation was an unprecedented blow to one of the world&#8217;s most important criminal organizations in cocaine distribution, targeting major criminal networks in Europe.&#8217;\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This comes two years after a\u00a0pair 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.<\/p>\n<p>Ecuador National Police Commander Tanny Varela said narcotic cops confiscated 7.2 tons of cocaine during a search in June 2021 at the Guayaqu\u00edl Maritime Port before the freight containers were scheduled to be loaded onto a ship.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/08\/28\/00\/74778305-12451487-image-a-17_1693177439410.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The bricks of cocaine are seen among the banana shipment<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/08\/28\/00\/74778291-12451487-image-a-18_1693177445867.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The cocaine packages had different logos on them correlating to different gangs in Europe<\/p>\n<p>The bust was, at the time, the largest ever made by authorities at the Pacific coast port.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;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,&#8217; Varela said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Last month, DailyMail.com revealed how at least $1billion worth of cocaine has been seized from &#8216;narco subs&#8217; en route to the US in the last eight years.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But anti-smuggling commanders believe around nine in 10 boats evade detection, meaning up to $9 billion worth of the drug may have entered the country via these vessels.<\/p>\n<p>Criminal gangs are increasingly using drug-laden semi submersibles to transport vast quantities of illicit substances into the US as they seek to outwit maritime police.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/08\/28\/00\/74778303-12451487-image-a-19_1693177450862.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Rows and rows of cocaine bricks were seized<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/08\/28\/00\/74778319-12451487-image-a-20_1693177454864.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The drug cargo that was busted earlier this week was due to be delivered in Portugal for later distribution throughout Europe<\/p>\n<p>The boats, which are not fully submersible but can dip under water like submarines, have advanced significantly in recent years.<\/p>\n<p>One former cartel member has predicted that missions, previously considered &#8216;kamikaze rituals&#8217; for crews, will soon be run by drug traffickers using remote controls from the safety of their headquarters.<\/p>\n<p>It comes after a Colombian man dubbed the &#8216;Prince of Submersibles&#8217; was jailed in the US for more than 20 years for running a fleet of narco subs shipping cocaine into the country.<\/p>\n<p>Official data on the number of narco-subs smuggling drugs into the US is yet to be released, but an audit of publicly available U.S. Coast Guard busts by DailyMail.com has found at least $1billion worth of cocaine has been seized from these boats since 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Given that the audit was only of cases already made public, the real figure is likely to be much higher.<\/p>\n<p>Maritime police insist they are getting better at intercepting the boats, but operation commanders have compared scouring the open ocean for 20 foot semi-submersibles to a pair of police cars patrolling the entire country.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, high-speed nautical chases are fraught with danger, with dramatic videos showing U.S. Coast Guardsmen leaping onto the hulls of narco-subs at full tilt before confronting smugglers face-to-face.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-12451487\/Spain-cocaine-Ecuador-banana.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spain busts record 9.5 tons of cocaine hidden in a banana shipment from Ecuador The prolific amount of the drug was found Wednesday in Algeciras, Spain Cocaine was found in a refrigerated\u00a0container among boxes of bananas\u00a0 It&#8217;s the biggest cocaine seizure Spanish authorities have undertaken\u00a0\u00a0 Spanish customs agents have confiscated the country&#8217;s biggest cocaine haul to date &#8211; after finding [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213734,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Spain busts 9.5 tons of cocaine hidden in banana shipment from Ecuador - Best World News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bestwnews.com\/world-news\/spain-busts-9-5-tons-of-cocaine-hidden-in-banana-shipment-from-ecuador\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Spain busts 9.5 tons of cocaine hidden in banana shipment from Ecuador - Best World News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Spain busts record 9.5 tons of cocaine hidden in a banana shipment from Ecuador The prolific amount of the drug was found Wednesday in Algeciras, Spain Cocaine was found in a refrigerated\u00a0container among boxes of bananas\u00a0 It&#8217;s the biggest cocaine seizure Spanish authorities have undertaken\u00a0\u00a0 Spanish customs agents have confiscated the country&#8217;s biggest cocaine haul to date &#8211; 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