This handout photograph released by the Swiss Police of the Canton of Fribourg, western Switzerland on 5 May 2022, shows one of the five containers of a shipment of coffee beans delivered to a Nespresso plant in which more than 500 kilogrammes of cocaine was found, in Romont. Swiss police said that more than 500 kilogrammes of cocaine had been found in a shipment of coffee beans delivered to a Nespresso plant. Image: Handout / Police cantonale Fribourg / AFP
This handout photograph released by the Swiss Police of the Canton of Fribourg, western Switzerland on 5 May 2022, shows one of the five containers of a shipment of coffee beans delivered to a Nespresso plant in which more than 500 kilogrammes of cocaine was found, in Romont. Swiss police said that more than 500 kilogrammes of cocaine had been found in a shipment of coffee beans delivered to a Nespresso plant. Image: Handout / Police cantonale Fribourg / AFP
Swiss police said Thursday they had seized more than 500 kilograms of cocaine from a shipment of coffee beans delivered to a Nespresso plant.
ALSO READ: Get to know Yandiswa Xhakaza: UCT Online High School’s first Director & Principal
WHITE POWDER FOUND IN SACKS OF NESPRESSO COFFEE BEANS
Workers at the plant in Romont, in the western Swiss canton of Fribourg, alerted authorities on Monday to a mysterious white powder found in sacks of coffee beans, police said.
Staff at the coffee capsule maker, owned by Swiss food giant Nestle, “found an undetermined white substance when they unloaded the freshly delivered sacks of coffee beans,” Fribourg police said.
Police analysis determined the substance was cocaine. A search of five shipping containers “delivered the same day by train allowed for the seizure of more than 500 kilos of this drug,” police added.
THE DRUGS DID NOT CONTAMINATE NESPRESSO PRODUCTION
Police said they set up a large security perimeter around the factory during the operation, which also involved a large contingent of customs officers.
The units containing the drugs were isolated, and the substance did not contaminate production at the plant, the statement said.
COCAINE FOUND AT NESPRESSO PLANT ORIGINATED IN BRAZIL
The initial probe indicated that the shipment originated in Brazil, police said, adding that the seized cocaine was determined to be more than 80% pure, with an estimated street value of over 50 million Swiss francs (R818.5 million).
“It appears that all of the drugs were destined for the European market,” police said.
© Agence France-Presse
