Authorities in Ecuador have impounded 6.23 tonnes of cocaine hidden in bananas intended for export to Germany. Anti-narcotics officials estimate the street value of the massive cocaine haul at $224 million if it had reached its destination.
According to the prosecutor-general’s office, five people were arrested following the discovery. Security officers, with the assistance of sniffer dogs, found the haul during a routine inspection of a container stored at Posorja deepwater port, southwest of Ecuador’s largest city, Guayaquil.
The cocaine parcels were concealed beneath crates of bananas planned for exportation. An executive from the export company responsible for the shipment was among those arrested in connection with the drug bust. Prosecutors said he was present at the inspection and provided officials with the names of the four other suspects.
The suspects arrested include the driver who transported the container to the port and the managers of the banana farm where the cocaine is believed to have been added to the fruit export.
Cocaine produced in neighbouring Colombia and Peru is mostly pushed through Ecuador, with transnational criminals using Ecuador’s ports to ship the drug to Europe and the US. Last year, Ecuadorian security forces seized more than 200 tonnes of drugs, most of it cocaine. Only the US and Colombia seized more drugs in 2023.
Dangerous gangs have caused a wave of violent crime in Ecuador, leading President Daniel Noboa to declare a state of emergency and deploy thousands of police officers and soldiers in an effort to combat them.
These security agencies have intercepted large stashes of cocaine from being shipped to Europe. In January, officers found the largest stash ever seized in Ecuador, with 22 tonnes of cocaine buried on a pig farm.