Spain police seize tons of cocaine among pineapples shipped from Costa Rica

MADRID — Spanish police seized 2.5 tons of cocaine hidden among pineapples on a ship from Costa Rica in one of the biggest ever seizures of the drug, they said Wednesday.

The cocaine was stuffed in 2,296 packages hidden among the fruit in a shipping container that arrived at the Mediterranean port of Algeciras. It was tracked and seized later at a warehouse near Madrid, police said in a statement.

The authorities gave no estimate for the street value of the cocaine but online newspaper El Confidencial estimated it was worth over 150 million euros ($200 million).

“This is one of the biggest seizures carried out in European Union ports,” the police statement said.

Police arrested six people in the Madrid suburb of Valdemoro, where the alleged drug traffickers are accused of storing the cocaine in a warehouse.

The authorities located the drug shipment in Algeciras thanks to a tip-off and tailed traffickers as they transported the cocaine to the warehouse.

Spain’s close ties to Latin America have made it the key entry point for cocaine from the continent bound for Europe.

Roughly 4.5 metric tons of cocaine with ties to Costa Rican has been seized in the last 24 hours, Public Security Minister Mario Zamora said.