&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Haaland’s face misused by gangsters to smuggle cocaine into Ecuador")
Ecuadorian anti-narcotics officers have seized 469 kilograms of cocaine hidden inside a truck near the Colombian border, with many of the packages carrying images of Manchester City and Norway striker Erling Haaland.
Authorities launched the operation after receiving an anonymous tip about a suspicious truck travelling along the Pan American Highway. Police searched the vehicle and found a secret compartment containing 370 parcels. Police footage showed officers removing the packages from the truck.
Many of the green-wrapped packages carried images of Haaland. However, the football star had no connection to the shipment, and traffickers appear to have used his image on the cocaine packages.
A woman carrying Colombian identification documents was arrested during the operation. Authorities have not explained why the traffickers chose Haaland's image.
Celebrity names and images are commonly used by drug trafficking organisations on shipments to identify packages or indicate their intended recipients. Peruvian authorities also found packages carrying Lionel Messi's image during a drug seizure in 2017.
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Ecuador is a key transit route for cocaine destined for Central America, the United States and Europe. Authorities estimated the local value of the seized drugs at around $842,000.
The estimated value could rise to more than $11 million in the United States and over $19.6 million in Europe.
