Lidl bananas contained cocaine

(Agencies) One hundred kilos of cocaine were found in boxes containing bananas, when they were opened by Lidl supermarket staff in Madrid, Cáceres and Plasencia. According to National Police sources, the cocaine 'bricks' were found at the first of the branches in several boxes that had been delivered to from Mercamadrid, the central produce market. The staff called the police, and further investigation located similar lots of bananas at other Lidl stores in Madrid -at least six- and at Cáceres and Plasencia. A police statement said that the>

'bricks', amounting to some 100 kilos, were very well wrapped, separately, and had not contaminated the bananas. It added that the supermarket chain 'had nothing to do with the matter', and that in all probability the smugglers had made a mistake in identifying the containers imported from Ecuador via the port of Alicante.

A police anti-drug operation last year discovered 224 kilos of similarly wrapped cocaine in another shipment from Ecuador. Although this latter lot came via Murcia, they are now investigating any connection between them. At the same time, the investigation is open until the real intended recipients of the drug are located and arrested.