Germany: Hamburg police seize 2 tons of cocaine worth €100M

Police in the port city of Hamburg have made several arrests after seizing more than two tons of cocaine.

Authorities estimate the drugs have a street value of around €100 million ($112 million).

"This is an outstanding success and one of the largest seizures in an ongoing operation," Hamburg's Interior Minister Andy Grote said.

Police said they found the cocaine on Wednesday afternoon when they searched a shipping container in the district of Rothenburgsort, near Hamburg's port. Inside, they allegedly found the cocaine hidden in banana boxes.

How did police find the drugs?

According to police, the shipping container was supposed to be driven by truck from the Altenwerder container terminal to an X-ray facility for customs inspection, but the driver deviated from the route.

Police said the truck instead stopped at a warehouse behind a shipping company, where the suspects allegedly wanted to exchange the drugs for bananas.

The police Special Task Force intervened as the cargo was about to be unloaded and arrested 12 suspects.

German media reported that the suspects were aged between 21 and 43 years, and came from Germany, Turkey, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Albania and India. Some of them were reportedly known to police for drug-related offenses.

Police said officers had received tip-offs from other European countries and that the raid came after weeks of undercover investigation.

nm/rmt (dpa, AFP)