Employees of a Norwegian fruit and vegetable supplier opened a shipment of bananas only to discover that it included a package of cocaine. Alerted by the employees, customs officials conducted a search and seized a total of 147 kilogrammes of the white powder, Norwegian customs announced on Monday in a statement.
The drugs, discovered in nine crates of bananas on 3 April, have a resale value of 170 million kroner (€15.5 million). They represent the biggest cocaine seizure in Norway since 2023, when 2.3 tonnes were confiscated, according to the Norwegian customs.
The cocaine had been transported by sea to Sweden from South America and was probably not intended for the Norwegian market.
The statement clarified that there was concrete information indicating that the cocaine was meant to be retrieved at the Port of Antwerp, a conclusion reached thanks to international cooperation with Europol and Belgian authorities.
Customs official Tim Gurrik said a criminal network was likely behind the smuggling attempt.
“A seizure of this scale requires significant financial resources and a robust organisation, something only major criminal networks can muster,” he said.
