ECUADOR confiscated about 8.8 tonnes of cocaine worth US$330 million (RM1.47 billion) that had been hidden between bananas in a container bound for Belgium, police said yesterday. 

“Record seizure in 2023 of more than eight tonnes of cocaine,” police commander General Fausto Salinas tweeted. 

“We prevented (the international sale of) 90 million doses, worth US$330 million in Europe,” he said, posting a video showing police searching the container, which was being shipped from the port of Guayaquil.

Located between Colombia and Peru – the world’s main producers of cocaine – Ecuador seized a record amount of the drug in 2021: about 210 tonnes bound for European ports. 

In 2022, seizures exceeded 200 tonnes – 61% of which were hidden among bananas destined for export – and so far this year they have totalled 31 tonnes. – AFP, February 27, 2023.