Drug smugglers can get pretty creative when it comes to sneaking their products into countries. Some build giant catapults or use old bazookas to launch weed into the states. Others just strap pounds cocaine to their bodies and hope no one notices how lumpy they look. Some even just and hope for the best. But there’s one method that smugglers around the world seem to keep coming back to, time after time. Produce disguise.
In 2016, smugglers stuffed marijuana into fake carrots. In 2017, it was disguising marijuana to look like 34,000 key limes. And now, in 2018, European authorities have discovered a massive shipment cocaine hidden inside a bunch fresh pineapples.
Generally speaking, pineapples have a ton benefits. They cure coughs and colds, help you lose weight, strengthen bones, improve eye health, boost immunity, and fight f infections. But did you know that they are good hiding places too?
The coke-stuffed pineapples were discovered between police in Spain and Portugal in an investigation that began almost a year ago. The joint investigation led them to search a series shipping containers, where they discovered that the shipment pineapples from South America was moving more than just the spiky fruit.
Around 1,642 pounds cocaine were split into various packages, coated in yellow wax, and hidden inside hollowed-out shells the pineapples. Police seized the fruit stash and raided a lab in Spain, where the stuff was allegedly going to be cut and repackaged. They made nine arrests in the process.