Authorities in Spain have intercepted a total of 13 tons of cocaine at the Port of Algeciras, the largest drug seizure in the country’s history.
Spanish agencies said the 13,062 kilos of cocaine was concealed in a consignment of bananas that had arrived in a container at Algeciras from the port of Guayaquil, Ecuador on October 14.
The consignment of drugs is said to have originated from an Ecuadorian exporter who appeared in customs and police databases with a history of illicit trafficking, enabling the Spanish Customs Surveillance Service and the National Police to intercept the consignment.
The seizure is the largest in the history of drug trafficking in Spain, as well as the second largest seizure in Europe in a single container and one of the most significant worldwide. It surpasses the previous record set in August last year, when 9.4 tons of cocaine were intercepted in a similar shipment of bananas in Algeciras from Ecuador.
Spanish and Ecuadorian authorities worked in close coordination in monitoring the contaminated container, which upon arrival at the port of Algeciras was inspected by the Tax Agency's 'Medusa' mobile scanner.
Inside, the container had a screen of boxes loaded with bananas to hide the drugs. Behind the screen were more boxes filled to the brim with cocaine bricks.
The importer is said to have been receiving large quantities of fruit from Ecuador for years, which made the analysis and inspection of its shipments extremely difficult, officials said.
Following the seizure, authorities carried out five raids and searches in homes and offices in Madrid and Alicante, leading to the arrest of a female suspect (below). The two managers of the importing company are said to be on the run.
The massive drug intercept shows that Spain has become a strategic point of entry for drugs into Europe, overtaking Belgium and the Netherlands, which have significantly improved security at their ports. Data shows that last year, Spanish authorities seized 142 tons of cocaine compared to 121 tons seized by Belgian authorities and 60 tons by Dutch authorities.
