A large shipment of cocaine worth $83 million was accidentally shipped to several supermarkets in the Czech Republic.
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The discovery was made by supermarket employees across the country when they noticed packages containing the powdered substance in banana crates. According to Newsweek, police officers investigated the crates and said the shipment reportedly originated from Colombia. The large shipment contained a total of 1,851 pounds of cocaine and was shipped through Germany’s port in Hamburg after stopping in Rotterdam before arriving in the Netherlands, the outlet reported.
1/3 Lisované kostky kokainu, v krabicích od banánů, nalezli dnes odpoledne pracovníci supermarketu v Jičíně a Rychnově nad Kněžnou. Kriminalisté zjistili, že zboží stejné šarže bylo distribuováno na několik dalších míst v ČR. pic.twitter.com/V3e7p8hOYu
— Policie ČR (@PolicieCZ) June 10, 2022
Package cubes containing cocaine were first discovered at a supermarket in Prague and the towns of Jicin and Rychnoc nad Kněžnou. Canine units were dispatched to the supermarkets to investigate further.
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“Criminal investigators found that goods of the same batch were distributed to several other places in the Czech Republic. Therefore, in cooperation with the [Customs Administration of the Czech Republic] and other entities, it is currently conducting inspections of these places and other actions,” police wrote in a statement.
2/3 Proto, v součinnosti s @Celnispravacr a dalšími subjekty, provádí v tuto chvíli prohlídky těchto míst a další úkony.
Informace o zásilkách vedou mimo území ČR, z toho důvodu využijeme institut mezinárodní policejní a justiční spolupráce. pic.twitter.com/UFBqCyBY4P— Policie ČR (@PolicieCZ) June 10, 2022
Czech Police also said they are now working with Interpol to look into the case and it is now being taken over by the National Drug Control Center.
“Information about consignments is kept outside the territory of the Czech Republic, for this reason, we will use the institute of international police and judicial cooperation. The case was taken over by the National Drug Control Center, which will conduct the investigation. We will provide more information as soon as possible.”
Recently, the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime said the manufacturing rate of cocaine has reached “record levels” in 2019 although momentum growth decreased.
“Cocaine manufacture reached record levels in 2019 despite growth losing momentum. The output of global cocaine manufacture doubled between 2014 and 2019 to reach an estimated 1,784 tons (expressed at 100 percent purity) in 2019, the highest level ever recorded. In 2019, Colombia continued to account for the vast majority of the global area under coca bush cultivation (two-thirds) […]
The cocaine market presents a clear threat at global level. Well-defined locations of production in South America and large consumer markets in the Americas and Europe lead to trafficking routes from a circumscribed origin to specific, even if far-flung, destinations. While some parts of the world play a crucial role as transit regions, the routes, modalities and networks employed by criminal actors continue to evolve, diversify and become more efficient. The increasingly globalized, interconnected, digitalized and technologically sophisticated nature of society, as well as a growing affluent demographic in some regions where cocaine use has traditionally been low, can potentially catalyse and accelerate the dynamism and expansion of the market”