Staff at a French supermarket chain have found more than 40 kilos of cocaine among a shipment of bananas. Police do not yet know who the intended recipient was.
It was employees of four branches of Grand Frais, all located in the eastern French region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, who found between forty and fifty kilos of cocaine in various packages among the pallets of bananas. The supermarket chain assures customers that the drugs never came into direct contact with the fruit.
Meanwhile, police are trying to determine how the drugs, believed to have come from Colombia, ended up among the bananas and – more importantly – who they were intended for.
“Ten kilos of cocaine were found in the fruit delivery at the Grand Frais store in Beaune,” reports Olivier Caracotch, the Dijon prosecutor. “In similar deliveries to three other stores, packages of ten to twelve kilos were found each time.”
The supermarket chain said it was working closely with police “to ensure the investigation runs smoothly and that our staff and customers are safe.” No further information was provided.
Favorite fruit
Based on recent seizures of cocaine shipments in Europe, bananas appear to be the fruit of choice for South American drug traffickers. In July, sniffer dogs found 6,000 kilos of cocaine, with an estimated street value of over 200 million euros, hidden in a shipment of bananas originating from Ecuador and destined for Germany. In August, customs officials in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, discovered approximately 93 kilos of cocaine in an Ecuadorian ship carrying bananas.