[ad_1]
Authorities within the Dominican Republican say cocaine found within the nation’s largest-ever seizure was headed to Europe.
Hidden in a banana cargo, officers discovered 9,500kg of the drug at a port within the capital, Santo Domingo.
The cocaine was hidden in 320 luggage with an estimated avenue worth of $250 million (£196 million).
At least 10 folks linked to the port are beneath investigation with early investigations exhibiting the bananas had arrived from Guatemala, in line with the National Drug Control Directorate.
Communications chief Carlos Denvers mentioned: “Many unknown individuals tried to transfer the drugs to another container that would be shipped on a vessel to Belgium.”
The haul far exceeds the two,580kg seizure made by Dominican authorities on the identical port in 2006.
Monitoring companies have reported that the Caribbean is resurfacing as a significant drug trafficking route from Colombia to Europe.
A report last year discovered using cocaine is rising in a number of western European nations together with the UK, Belgium, France and Spain.
Europe accounted for 21% of the world’s cocaine customers in 2020, in line with a United Nations report.
Evidence suggests use of the drug is bringing dire health consequences, with latest information exhibiting drug-poisoning deaths in England and Wales hit the very best degree in 30 years, fuelled by a 30% rise in fatalities involving cocaine.
[ad_2]
Source link
