Hamburg police seize 2 tons of cocaine worth 100 million euros – DW – 09/27/2024

In the port city of Hamburg, police arrested several people after seizing more than two tons of cocaine.

Authorities estimate the drugs have a street value of around 100 million euros ($112 million).

“This is an outstanding success and one of the largest seizures in an ongoing operation,” said Hamburg’s Interior Minister Andy Grote.

Police said they found the cocaine on Wednesday afternoon while searching a shipping container in the Rothenburgsort district near the port of Hamburg. Inside, they allegedly found the cocaine hidden in banana boxes.

How did the police find the drugs?

According to the police, the shipping container was supposed to be driven by truck from the Altenwerder container terminal to an X-ray system for customs control, but the driver deviated from the route.

Police said the truck instead stopped at a warehouse behind a shipping company, where the suspects allegedly wanted to trade the drugs for bananas.

As the load was about to be unloaded, the police special task force intervened and arrested twelve suspects.

German media reported that the suspects were between 21 and 43 years old and came from Germany, Turkey, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Albania and India. Some of them were reportedly known to police for drug-related offenses.

Police said officers received tips from other European countries and the raid came after weeks of undercover investigations.

nm/rmt (dpa, AFP)