Overview

• Greek police intercepted a banana container imported from Ecuador at the Port of Thessaloniki and removed 271.15 kilograms of cocaine before it was loaded onto a truck.
• Three suspects—a 40-year-old Greek haulage company owner, a 32-year-old Greek distributor, and a 47-year-old Bulgarian national—were arrested in Aspropyrgos as they opened the container.
• Authorities released video footage and images showing officers extracting brick-sized cocaine packages from the shipment.
• Investigators are actively searching for additional members of the drug distribution gang believed to be involved in the smuggling network.
• The case highlights a larger trend of traffickers concealing large cocaine shipments in refrigerated fruit containers and underscores the role of international intelligence-sharing and targeted port inspections.