Grocery Workers Open Banana Crates, Find Cocaine

From Colombia with, uh, oops
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jan 8, 2014 9:03 AM CST
Grocery Workers Open Banana Crates, Find Cocaine
A masked policeman stands next to banana crates with confiscated drugs in the police headquarters in Berlin, Tuesday, Jan.7, 2014.   (Daniel Naupold)

Police in Germany say they have seized a large haul of cocaine after smugglers apparently made a mistake that sent the drug to supermarkets. Workers at five stores in and around Berlin were surprised to find cocaine packed into crates of bananas on Monday—a total of about 310 pounds. The head of Berlin's anti-drugs squad said yesterday that the crates had come from Colombia via the German port of Hamburg and the discovery was "pure chance."

German news agency dpa quoted Olaf Schremm as saying that the smugglers had probably made "a logistical mistake." And an expensive one: It's estimated that the drugs would have had a street value of about $8.2 million. (More cocaine stories.)

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