Swastika-stamped packs of cocaine worth £5,000,000 found in shipping container
Drug agents, who found the stash hidden in a shipment of asparagus, said it was the first time they'd seen anything like it.
A huge shipment of cocaine packaged with Nazi insignia has been intercepted on its way to the streets of Europe.
Drug agents searching a boat berthed in Peru on Thursday found 58 one-kilo bricks of the white powder, stamped with the name ‘Hitler’ and individually wrapped with numbered print-outs of the Third Reich’s Swastika flag.
The haul was hidden in a container full of asparagus bound for a port in Belgium, which is one of the main entry points for drugs destined for the UK.
According to a police report, it was aboard a Liberian-flagged ship named SC Anisha R which had stopped in the Peruvian port of Paita after a brief journey from Ecuador.
Local authorities said they were used to finding strange markings and packaging on cocaine shipments, but had never seen any with Nazi symbols and could not explain the find.
Photos shared by authorities suggest the drugs were hidden inside the container’s ventilation system used to keep vegetables fresh.
Peru is the world’s second-largest producer of cocaine, turning out around 100 tonnes of the drug per year. The majority of it is sent by sea to Europe.
UK street value statistics suggest 58kg of cocaine sold directly to British users would fetch upward of £4,600,000.
The haul may have been worth considerably more on arriving in Belgium as the drug is heavily diluted with other ingredients and sold on by successive gangs of traffickers.
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