Overview
- Customs and police in Hamburg said Friday they seized 1.6 tons of cocaine in March from a banana container arriving from Ecuador, with an estimated street value near €30 million.
- A tip from the port’s Security Center (HSZ) led teams to scan several Ecuador-origin containers, where they found 1,600 drug packages hidden among the cargo.
- At Nuremberg Airport, Lost and Found staff sent an unclaimed bag to customs, who X-rayed 16.5 kilograms of cocaine bricks and later linked it to a 72-year-old Spaniard arrested in Barcelona in December 2025.
- Police on a passenger train near Surberg in Bavaria seized about 2.4 kilograms of cocaine from a 30-year-old, identified as a Syrian living in the Netherlands, and a judge ordered pretrial detention.
- Joint drug units known as GER and local prosecutors are pursuing follow-up cases, underscoring tighter cooperation as cartels use container freight and passenger travel to move cocaine into northern Europe.