Cocaine disguised as charcoal with a potential street value of up to 35 million euros (S41 .4 million) has been seized in a joint operation between Irish and Dutch authorities.
The drugs were found inside two shipping containers from South America that arrived at the port of Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, as part of what Irish investigators believe was an attempt to import up to half a ton of cocaine to Ireland, according to a press release from the Garda Síochána, Ireland’s national police and security service, published Wednesday.
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Inside the containers were 2,000 bags of charcoal. Thanks to the use of an X-ray scanner and police sniffer dogs, some of the bags were found to contain cocaine.
Forensic Science Ireland (FSI) later confirmed that cocaine was present, but it will take a number of days and perhaps longer for FSI to extract the cocaine from the product within which it is concealed,” reads the press release.
If the full shipment of cocaine has been discovered it could have a street value of up to 35 million euros ($41.5 million), police said.
