Police in Spain have seized 200kg of cocaine hidden in a consignment of pineapples from Central America.
According to a statement from the Interior Ministry, the smugglers had covered the drugs with a yellow wax and concealed them inside hollowed-out pineapples that were placed in 10 shipping containers bound for the port of Algeciras.
The consignment arrived from an undisclosed country in Central America and was destined for two companies, one in Madrid and the other in San Quirzé del Vallés near Barcelona. Police later arrested three people, two of whom were Spanish nationals of Colombian origin and owners of one of the companies where the fruit was bound.
Information obtained from the suspects later led to the Belgian police intercepting another container that was due to be unloaded in the port of Antwerp before being transported to the Netherlands.
Spain is a key entry point for cocaine smuggled into Europe and drugs are often hidden inside consignments of fruit arriving from Central America.
