Authorities in the Dominican Republic say they have confiscated nearly 9.5 tonnes of cocaine found in a banana shipment.
It is the largest drug seizure in the country’s history.
The drugs, worth $250m (£196m), were found in a shipment that arrived at Caucedo, the country’s main seaport, in the capital of Santo Domingo.
The shipment had been sent from Guatemala and was destined for Belgium, according to Carlos Devers, a spokesperson for the Dominican Republic’s anti-drug agency.
Ten suspects had been detained, he told a press conference.
“Early investigations show that a container carrying bananas arrived from Guatemala,” he said. “Many unknown individuals tried to transfer the drugs to another container that would be shipped on a vessel to Belgium.”
He said it was the country’s largest seizure, beating a 2.6-tonne seizure, also in Caudedo, in 2006.
Dominican Republic authorities have seized nearly 47 tonnes of drugs so far this year.
InSight Crime, a thinktank that analyses organised crime, has said the record-breaking seizures made this year suggest the Caribbean is resurfacing as a major trafficking route from Colombia to Europe, where consumption is estimated to have more than doubled between 2011 and last year.
“As demand grows, traffickers are ramping up efforts to meet it, turning to the Caribbean as an ideal conduit for smuggling cocaine to Europe,” InSight Crime said in an analysis in late November, noting that large Dominican transport hubs provided extensive opportunities for traffickers.
Source: theguardian.com
