Germany's biggest cocaine bust ever: Authorities seize drugs worth $2.78 billion
Representative image of illicit drugs.
Authorities in Germany announced on Monday (June 17) that they had seized cocaine worth2.6 billion euros ($2.78 billion)from several container ships and arrested seven people in what they called the biggest-ever cocaine find in the country. A report by the news agency Associated Press said that prosecutorsin Düsseldorf confiscated 35.5 metric tonnes of cocaine last yearfollowing a tip from Colombian authorities.
The prosecutors said that they found25 tonnes of cocaine in the port of the northern city of Hamburg, another 8 tonnes in the Dutch port of Rotterdam and almost 3 tonnes in Colombia.
The drug seizures had not previously been announced.
How was the cocaine found?
The cocaine was hidden amongvegetables and fruit, the Associated Press report said. The suspects- aged between 30 and 54 -were arrested in recent weeks and are believed to have been behind the smuggling.
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The prosecutors said that the arrested includedGerman, Azerbaijani, Bulgarian, Moroccan, Turkish and Ukrainian nationals. Their identitieswere not given in line with German privacy rules.
'Blow to international organised criminality'
Prosecutors also said that a businessman from the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia set up 100 letterbox companiesto make the transports (of cocaine)appear legal.
“Specifically, the suspects are accused of organizing the transport of 10 sea containers with large quantities of cocaine from Latin America to Europe in the period from April to September 2023 with other as yet unknown accomplices allegedly residing in Turkey via front companies set up for this purpose,”they added.
North Rhine-Westphalia's Justice MinisterBenjamin Limbach praised the cocaine seizure. Speaking to reporters, Justice MinisterLimbach said the seizure was a blowto international organised criminality.
"It’s a precise punch in the jaw that hurts the drug lords,” Limbach added.
(With inputs from agencies)