The Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU) on Thursday said that it found no evidence to suggest that the cocaine discovered in a rice shipment in Germany came from Guyana.
A German official examining the cocaine found in the rice shipment
It was announced earlier this month that authorities in Hamburg found 1.5 tonnes of cocaine in a rice shipment from Guyana.
But CANU said based on its investigations, the drugs might have been placed into the containers whilst they were in-transit in another country.
In fact, CANU said newspapers from that country were some of the materials used to wrap the illegal substance.
Already, the Guyana Rice Development Board said all protocols were followed in packing the rice for shipment.
Hamburg authorities discovered 1.5 tonnes of cocaine in a container freight, one of the largest quantities ever seized in the northern German port city, a spokesperson for the Customs Investigations Office said on Monday.
According to Germany’s international broadcaster Deutsche Welle, the massive stash, which has an estimated street value of around €300 million (US$353 million), was hidden between sacks of rice in the container which came from Guyana, local newspaper Hamburger Abendblatt reported.
“The 1.5 tons of cocaine seized may be a highly pure drug, which would be tripled in price for street sales,” the Hamburger Abendblatt quoted an official as saying.
The container had arrived in Hamburg’s port at the end of June on the 300-metre-long container ship, CMA CGM Jean Gabriel and was expected to be loaded onto a feeder ship together with 11 other transport containers. The final destination was supposed to be Poland.
For this purpose, the container was temporarily stored at the Hamburg terminal.
Investigators at the Joint Customs and Police Investigation Group (JIT) had reportedly received a tip-off about drug smuggling. During the investigation process, the container in question was then taken to the city’s Waltershof customs office and examined in a testing facility.
Officers found 47 large packages hidden between the rice sacks and within those packages, a total of 1277 small parcels with cocaine. The parcels all had various symbols on them, including a cat’s face, the Gallic rooster, and the Ampelmännchen (red and green traffic light symbols shown on pedestrian signals in Germany). Several hundred of the packages were marked with the same logo.
Authorities presumed the cocaine was to be distributed from Poland to bulk buyers all over Europe who would then sell the drug to street dealers, Deutsche Welle reported.
The latest find is among the largest quantity of cocaine ever seized in Hamburg. A year ago, customs officers seized 4.5 tonnes of cocaine with a street value of almost €1 billion. The narcotic was transported by a cargo ship from Uruguay and was destined for Antwerp in Belgium.
