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- $153 million of cocaine found hidden in banana shipment</p>
<p>CBSNewsJuly 17, 2025 at 9:04 PM</p>
<p>Russia said Wednesday it had seized 1,800 pounds of cocaine hidden under a shipment of bananas, calling it its largest bust of drugs from Latin America this year.</p>
<p>Russia's customs service, working jointly with the FSB security service, said it had uncovered a batch worth "more than 12 billion rubles ($153 million)" stashed in banana containers.</p>
<p>The cocaine packages — disguised in briquettes bearing the label of a French luxury fashion brand — were discovered in a "hidden cavity" under the bananas, it added. In a post on social media, the Federal Customs Service of Russia released images of the cocaine and said service dogs helped sniff out the hidden drugs.</p>
<p>Russia said Wednesday it had seized 1,800 pounds of cocaine hidden under a shipment of bananas, calling it its largest bust of drugs from Latin America this year. / Credit: Federal Customs Service of Russia</p>
<p>Customs officials said they carried out the bust after a tip-off from "foreign colleagues about the intention of a South American criminal group to organize a smuggling channel for cocaine supplies to Russia."</p>
<p>It said an investigation had been opened into large-scale drug trafficking, a charge that in Russia carries maximum penalty of life imprisonment.</p>
<p>Russia has a zero-tolerance policy towards drug use and smuggling, handing heavy sentences to those convicted of trafficking small amounts of narcotics -- including foreigners.</p>
<p>Cocaine smuggling into Russia has surged over the past two years, according to Russia's Izvestia newspaper.</p>
<p>Drug traffickers are increasingly looking to the country as a transit hub, in part because the Ukrainian port of Odesa has become inaccessible due to the war in Ukraine, the paper said.</p>
<p>Cocaine concealed in banana shipments</p>
<p>Cocaine has been found hidden in banana shipments across the globe in recent months.</p>
<p>In May, employees at a Norwegian fruit distributor discovered a packet of cocaine in a box of bananas, alerting customs officials who found a stash of 147 kilos.</p>
<p>Last December, authorities in the Dominican Republic confiscated nearly 9.5 tons of cocaine from a banana shipment at the country's most important seaport.</p>
<p>In August 2024, customs agents seized more than 200 pounds of cocaine at the port in Greece from a ship carrying the fruit. The month before that, police dogs in Ecuador helped find more than six tons of cocaine hidden in a banana shipment headed to Germany.</p>
<p>In March last year, Bulgarian customs officials confiscated about 170 kilograms of cocaine from a ship transporting bananas from Ecuador.</p>
<p>The month before that, British authorities said they found more than 12,500 pounds of cocaine hidden in a shipment of the fruit, breaking the record for the biggest single seizure of hard drugs in the country.</p>
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