Almost five tons of cocaine hidden in a container of bananas from Ecuador were seized at Lisbon Maritime Customs, the Tax Administration (AT), responsible for the discovery of the drug, announced this Friday.
Cocaine weighing a total of 4958.25 kilograms was discovered and confiscated on July 31, but the AT justified the announcement of the operation this Friday only because the narcotic product was immediately handed over to the Judicial Police (PS), “who continued the steps considered “Necessary” to investigate the network human trafficking, resulting in “the news not being immediately disclosed,” the Internal Revenue Service said.
According to the same information, the drug was divided into 4,352 sheets of cocaine, which were hidden in a container of chilled bananas from Ecuador.
AT did not provide details about the operation or whether it led to any arrests. Lusa attempted to obtain further clarification from the SP, but this was not possible in a timely manner.
This is not the first recent seizure of cocaine hidden in containers and banana boxes from Latin America, but it will be one of the largest.
In May, the SP announced the seizure of 4.2 tons of “high purity” cocaine in the port of Setúbal, which originated in Colombia and was transported to Portugal by sea in palletized shipments of bananas.
On this occasion, the SP noted that in terms of quantity it was the largest seizure in a year in Portugal and one of the largest in recent years.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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