Russia said Wednesday it had seized 1,800 pounds of cocaine hidden under a shipment of bananas, calling it its largest bust of drugs from Latin America this year. Russia's customs service, working jointly with the FSB security service, said it had uncovered a batch worth "more than 12 billion rubles ($153 million)" stashed in banana containers. The cocaine packages — disguised in briquettes bearing the label of a French luxury fashion brand — were discovered in a "hidden cavity" under the bananas, it added. In apost on social media, the Federal Customs Service of Russia released images of the cocaine and said service dogs helped sniff out the hidden drugs. Customs officials said they carried out the bust after a tip-off from "foreign colleagues about the intention of a South American criminal group to organize a smuggling channel for cocaine supplies to Russia." It said an investigation had been opened into large-scale drug trafficking, a charge that in Russia carries maximum penalty of life imprisonment. Russia has a zero-tolerance policy towards drug use and smuggling, handing heavy sentences to those convicted of trafficking small amounts of narcotics -- including foreigners. Cocaine smuggling into Russia has surged over the past two years, according to Russia's Izvestia newspaper. Drug traffickers are increasingly looking to the country as a transit hub, in part because the Ukrainian port of Odesa has become inaccessible due to thewar in Ukraine, the paper said. Cocaine concealed in banana shipments Cocaine has been found hidden in banana shipments across the globe in recent months. In May, employees at a Norwegian fruit distributor discovered a packet of cocaine in a box of bananas, alerting customs officials who found astash of 147 kilos. Last December, authorities in the Dominican Republic confiscatednearly 9.5 tons of cocainefrom a banana shipment at the country's most important seaport. In August 2024, customs agents seized more than200 pounds of cocaineat the port in Greece from a ship carrying the fruit. The month before that, police dogs in Ecuador helped findmore than six tons of cocainehidden in a banana shipment headed to Germany. In March last year, Bulgarian customs officials confiscated about170 kilograms of cocainefrom a ship transporting bananas from Ecuador. The month before that, British authorities said they foundmore than 12,500 poundsof cocaine hidden in a shipment of the fruit, breaking the record for the biggest single seizure of hard drugs in the country. Son of man who was violently detained by ICE reacts after release Mike Johnson breaks from Trump, calls on DOJ to release Epstein files 7.3 magnitude earthquake hits southern Alaska
