Ecuadorian police seized 2.5 tons of cocaine on Sunday from a container of bananas about to be sent sent to Belgium from the southwest port city of Guayaquil in Ecuador.
“Two tons and 458 kilograms of cocaine were seized,” the police of Ecuador wrote on its Twitter account, which also displayed a video showcasing the seized drugs.
The drugs had been divided into 2,461 packets of cocaine hidden among a shipment of bananas, which is one of the country’s main exports. One person was also immediately arrested during the inspection and discovery of the cocaine.
In 2021, Ecuador seized a record of 210 tons of drugs, primarily cocaine, and has already confiscated more than 70 tons since the beginning of this year.
Located between Colombia and Peru, the leading producers of cocaine, Ecuador often acts as a storage or transit point for the drug into other parts of the world.
The country now faces large-scale trafficking problems through its ports, and domestic sales and usage of cocaine have also risen significantly in recent years.
