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SPAIN-DRUGS-CRIME-COSTARICA
Spanish police seize cocaine-stuffed pineapples
MADRID, Aug 27, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Spanish police said Monday they have
seized 67 kilogrammes (148 pounds) of cocaine found inside dozens of
hollowed-out pineapples at Madrid’s main wholesale fruit and vegetable
market.
The drug-stuffed fruits were found at the sprawling Mercamadrid market
among a shipment of pineapples that arrived in the Portuguese port of Setubal
by ship from Costa Rica and was then transported overland to the Spanish
capital, police said in a statement.
Each pineapple was “perfectly hallowed out and stuffed with compact
cylinders” containing 800-1,000 grammes cocaine and was coated with wax or
yellow paraffin to conceal the “odours of the chemical products which the
drug contains and avoid its detection”, the statement said.
Police arrested seven people as part of the operation — three in Madrid
and four in Barcelona — who are suspected of playing a role in the cocaine
smuggling operation.
Spain, with its historic and linguistic links to South America, is the
main entry point to Europe for cocaine from the continent, mostly from
Colombia.
Smugglers often resort to creative methods to get drugs past Spanish
customs.
In recent years, police have found cocaine inside breast implants, a wig,
a wheelchair cushion, a plaster cast encasing a man’s broken leg as well as
inside a 42-piece crockery set.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1802 hrs