CONSTANTA, ROMANIA - The banana—delicious fruity treat, yes, but also heinous accessory to drug smuggling. Law officials in Romania found over two tons of cocaine stashed in a huge banana crate shipment, measuring in at a dollar amount of around $694 million.
Transported from Colombia and a few other South American countries, the cocaine was discovered in the Black Sea port of Constanta in Romania nestled in a shipment marked as 320 tons of bananas, according to an ABC News report.
Chief Anti-Crime Prosecutor, Daniel Horodniceanu, commented that this was “the biggest-ever seizure of cocaine in Romania” and one of the biggest in all of Europe in recent years. The Bucharest-based court ruled that the suspects, one from Morocco, four from Lithuania, and one from Colombia, be arrested for 30 days.
According to ABC News, the suspects rented a building in the seaside city of Eforie Sud, which prosecutors and police officers raided in late June.
The Moroccan suspect, Mimoun "Rocky" Kaabouni, was detained by Spanish authorities at Malaga airport as he tried to leave Spain.
As bananas continue to play a starring role in some of the seedier tales of the produce industry, expect AndNowUKnow to keep you in the know.
