Italy and UK seize cocaine hidden in banana shipments within days of each other

European authorities reported two significant cocaine seizures within the same week, both hidden among refrigerated banana shipments arriving from South America, underlining how the fruit trade remains a favoured cover for narcotics smugglers moving product into Europe. Italian and British agencies each described their respective hauls as among the largest they had recorded in recent years.

Italy's financial police said the seizure at the port of Vado Ligure, in the Savona region, represented one of the country's most significant anti-drug operations in years. The container had arrived from a major port in Ecuador and was cleared for inspection after officials flagged the route as an increasingly important crossroads for South American trade into Europe. Inside, hidden among dozens of pallets of bananas, investigators found 650 blocks that testing later confirmed to be pure cocaine, with a combined weight of more than 770 kilograms and an estimated street value above €250 million.

Two days later, Britain's National Crime Agency reported a separate seizure after targeting an arriving reefer vessel operated by a Dutch shipping company for inspection at Portsmouth. The ship had sailed from South America and the Caribbean. Officers found 240 kilograms of cocaine concealed in crates of bananas, with an estimated value above £19 million. The agency said it continues to monitor banana shipments from South America as a persistent smuggling route.

Banana cargoes have long attracted the attention of European drug squads. Authorities in Rotterdam previously reported a seizure of more than 700 kilograms of cocaine at the port, dwarfed by a haul of over two tonnes found in an Ecuadorian banana shipment the same year. British customs later described a seizure of more than five and a half tonnes, also hidden among bananas, as possibly the largest narcotics find in the country's history. Spain holds the largest recorded haul of the kind, with more than thirteen tonnes seized from an Ecuadorian banana shipment.

The near-simultaneous discoveries in Italy and the United Kingdom suggest smuggling networks continue to view refrigerated fruit cargoes as a reliable route into European markets, despite repeated high-profile seizures. Both agencies said they were intensifying scrutiny of trade routes linking South American ports with European gateways as a result.