ANTI-NARCOTICS officers in Peru seized 58kg of cocaine headed for Belgium in packages bearing Nazi symbols and the name Hitler, police said yesterday.  

The drugs were hidden in 50 packages the size of bricks, each one bearing a Nazi swastika, according to pictures released by police.  

Some of the packages were open with the word “Hitler” written in high relief on the compacted white powder.  

The drugs were found in a Liberian flagged boat in the small northern port town of Paita, close to the border with Ecuador.  

It had come from Guayaquil, the Ecuadoran port city known as a major jumping off point for South American drugs heading to the United States and Europe.  

Police did not say if anyone was arrested.  

Drugs wrapped in Nazi insignia are not otherwise a matter Peruvian police have previously dealt with.  

Peruvian authorities seized 19,958kg of cocaine in 2022.  

After its neighbor Colombia, Peru is the largest producer of cocaine in the world, with around 362,874kg a year, according to official figures.  

The country is also one of the largest producers of coca leaf, a product which is legal when used to chew or make an infusion but is also the primary material in cocaine. – AFP, May 26, 2023.