Coast guard seizes $1 mln of cocaine hidden in banana cargo

A quantity of cocaine whose value reportedly exceeds 1 million euros was confiscated on Monday morning by authorities at the port of Piraeus.

According to a port authority statement, the operation was carried out in cooperation with the HSI (Homeland Security Investigations) Office of the US Embassy in Athens, and involved members of the Narcotics and Smuggling Unit, the Narcotics Task Force and the Security Office of the Central Port Authority of Piraeus.

Authorities found 30 packages of cocaine, weighing a total of 34 kilograms and 354 grams, in a ship container that had arrived at the port's Container Terminal from Ecuador. The cocaine had been placed in the refrigeration unit of the container with a legal cargo of bananas.

Two more containers were subsequently searched with negative results. "The Central Port Authority of Piraeus, which is conducting the...