Around 613 kilograms of cocaine hidden in a banana shipment were discovered in the Albanian port of Durres, in a coordinated operation between the Colombian National Navy, international agencies and Albanian police.
The drugs were “hidden in the floor of a container that would have left Colombia in mid-January with a double bottom, loaded with bananas, aboard a vessel that (…) visited several ports in Europe before arriving at the Albanian port, where the container landed”.
Information provided by the participating agencies allowed the Albanian police to plan an operation to control the route of the container, owned by an Albanian company, from the moment of its disembarkation in the port to the company’s facilities in the town of Durres.
During the operation two people were arrested: the driver of the truck and an employee of the company, according to the report of the Colombian National Navy.
The Albanian Police issued a “search and seizure order against the owner of the company and opened the investigation with its counterparts in Europe to determine the identity of the other persons linked to this seizure”, which would be the largest of the drug to be seized in Albania.
The cocaine seized belonged to a drug trafficking gang associated with the Clan del Golfo cartel, which sends narcotics to several ports in Europe has contacts.
The Naval Force of the Caribbean with its naval units and thanks to the interagency cooperation of countries in Central America, the United States and Europe, has managed to seize more than seven tons of cocaine this year.
