JAKARTA - The Dominican Republic has uncovered its largest cocaine smuggling bust ever, finding around 9.5 tons of cocaine hidden in a shipment of bananas that arrived at a port in the capital Santo Domingo.
The Head of Communications for the Dominican Republic's National Drug Control Directorate Carlos Denvers said his team found 320 bags containing around 9,528 kilograms of cocaine. Its value is estimated at around 250 million US dollars.
"Initial investigations indicate that a container carrying bananas arrived from Guatemala," Denvers said as reported by Reuters on Saturday, December 7.
"Many unknown people tried to transfer the cocaine to another container that would be shipped by ship to Belgium," he added.
Denvers said this was the largest seizure in the country, surpassing a 2,580 kg seizure in 2006 at the port of Caucedo in Santo Domingo, the same port where the last drug shipment was found.
InSight Crime, a foundation that analyses organised crime, has previously warned that record-breaking seizures this year show the Caribbean is re-emerging as a major route for human trafficking from Colombia to Europe, with consumption estimated to have more than doubled between 2011 and last year.
“As demand increases, traffickers are stepping up efforts to meet it, turning to the Caribbean as an ideal conduit for smuggling cocaine into Europe,” InSight Crime said.
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