A shipment of bananas bound for Belgium included cocaine worth £275 million.
The nearly 8.8 tonnes of cocaine were seized by Ecuadorian police before the priceless shipment left for Europe.
The South American nation has developed into one of the primary hubs for the passage of cocaine made in the neighboring countries of Peru and Colombia.
On Twitter, Commander General Fausto Salinas acknowledged that the seizure was a “record” for 2023.
He said, “We stopped the export of 90 million doses, which would have cost $330 million in Europe.
Police released a video showing officers searching the container with the cocaine.
President Guillermo Lasso, a conservative former banker, has pushed for Ecuador to ramp up efforts to fight gangs using the country as a transit point for shipping cocaine to the US and Europe.
The cocaine was to be exported from the coastal city of Guayaquil to Belgium.
Last year, Belgian customs intercepted roughly 110 tonnes of drugs in the port of Antwerp – a new record.
The port is known as the number one cocaine hub in Europe, with the quantities seized so great that the incinerators used to destroy the drug cannot keep up.
Ecuador and Belgium yesterday agreed to increase bilateral cooperation in their fight against international organised crime.
The interior ministers of both countries signed an agreement in Quito to promote the exchange of information, methodology, procedures and experiences, as well as technology to combat drug exports.
Ecuador’s interior minister Juan Zapata said that of the 201 tonnes of drugs seized in the country last year, almost 18% was destined for Belgium, and specifically Antwerp.
‘It is undeniable that we need new transversal responses against organized crime,’ he said.