Drug smugglers made a bit of a slip-up with their latest attempt to get drugs into Europe after it was discovered that cocaine was packaged and delivered to supermarkets throughout Spain hidden underneath bananas.
Police found out about the drugs when a shelf-stacker at a Madrid Lidl supermarket discovered that there was a brick of cocaine under the fruit Saturday.
After looking through Lidl shops across the country, drug sniffing dogs found that there were a total of 25 packets valued at a few million euros hidden in the fruit boxes totalling up to a weight of 80kg.
The origin of the bananas came from the Ivory Coast and Ecuador. The cocaine was the biggest drug find since the Dutch found drugs coming out of the Caribbean Islands.
The cocaine was hidden within plantain bananas that were sent to Madrid at a wholesale vegetable and fruit market from a Sagunto south east port.
Around a tonne of fruit was destroyed after the drugs were found hidden in their packaging and a company spokesman stated that this is the first time that a Lidl has faced this type of problem and that the company hopes it is the last time they have such a dilemma.
Police are investigating a large area from eastern Caceres to the capital to figure out where the cocaine came from.
Over the course of last year Spanish police seized over 14 tonnes of cocaine that was smuggled into Spain in various items such as nappies, seafood, and stuffed animals.
