Germany seizes 1.5 tons of cocaine found in shipment from Guyana

A reported tip off has led police authorities in Hamburg, Germany to seize over €300 million worth of cocaine in a cargo ship container that originated from Guyana.

This is one of the largest quantities ever seized in the northern German port city, a spokesperson for the Customs Investigations Office said on Monday.

The massive stash, which has an estimated street value of around €300 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-meter-long container ship, “CMA CGM Jean Gabriel.”

The container was to be loaded onto a feeder ship together with 11 other transport containers and then ultimately carry the cargo to 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.

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 1,277 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.