Fruit company staff find cocaine in Norway banana boxes

Employees at a Norwegian fruit distributor had their eyes peeled when they discovered a packet of cocaine in a box of bananas, alerting customs officials who found a stash of 147 kilos, they said Monday.

The haul, found in nine boxes of bananas on April 3, is believed to have a street value of 170 million kroner ($16.4 million) and is the biggest in the Scandinavian country since 2023, when a total of 2.3 tonnes were found, Norwegian Customs said in a statement.

The drugs were smuggled by sea from South America and then on a trailer through Sweden, though they were probably not intended for the Norwegian market.

"There is concrete information that suggests the cocaine was to be picked up at the Antwerp port, based on information through international cooperation with Europol and Belgian authorities," the statement said.

Customs official Tim Gurrik said a large criminal network was likely behind the attempted smuggling.

"A seizure of such magnitude requires a great deal of financial and organisational muscle that only larger criminal networks have the ability to carry out," he said.

"We see that the criminal networks behind the smuggling are willing to take risks and are adaptable."