Cocaine with a street value of €50 million found in Vlissingen banana shipment

Customs officials made a surprising discovery during a routine inspection at the Vlissingen port, finding 656 kilograms of cocaine hidden in a shipment of bananas. The cocaine has an estimated street value of about 50 million euros, the Public Prosecution Service said on Wednesday, a day after the find.

“The cargo came from Puerto Bolivar in Ecuador and was destined for a company in Germany,” the Dutch Public Prosecution Service stated. The office dose not believe the company is actually involved in the drug smuggling operation.

The cocaine was destroyed soon after it was catalogued.

It is the second incident involving cocaine at the port in three days. Customs officials on Sunday arrested two people in Vlissingen after several dozen kilograms of drugs were found in a sea container on Finlandweg at the harbor.

Hours before, police detained a 36-year-old man and a 26-year-old man who were in a car on Europaweg Noord. When approached by authorities, the driver remained but the passenger tried to take off on foot. He was captured soon after.

The vehicle contained burglary tools, authorities said. The investigation suggests the men were going to attempt to retrieve the drugs from the container.

The 36-year-old was also a fugitive who was trying to evade a prison sentence of about seven months. Neither suspect had a fixed place of residence.