Africa-Press – Mozambique. Brazilian Federal Police have seized five tonnes of cocaine hidden in a shipment of soap powder that was to be shipped to Mozambique, a record seizure, official sources reported.
According to the Brazilian Federal Police, it was the largest cocaine seizure ever in the state of Rio de Janeiro.
“After a tip-off, investigations were carried out, which began on Tuesday morning. With the support of sniffer dogs, about 4.3 tons of the narcotic were located packed in soap powder boxes, inside a container”.
When they were removing the drugs, sniffer dogs alerted them to suspicious substances in another container, in which another 700 kilos of cocaine were found also hidden inside boxes of soap powder.
“Those responsible for the cargo did a very sophisticated job. They placed the cocaine inside the soap boxes with a weight identical to that declared in the shipping documents by the exporter,” said the head of the Customs Smuggling Repression Division, Augusto da Rocha, in statements to the press.
“For the cost of logistics, this is a highly structured criminal organization, but it had a huge loss, since it is the largest cocaine seizure made in the history [of the state] of Rio de Janeiro,” said deputy chief of the Commission for the Repression of Narcotics, Bruno Tavares.
Although the police have not yet identified the owners of the cargo and have not determined whether the drugs were smuggled by the exporters themselves or without their knowledge, Federal Police agents detained two suspects who were found at the port.
In the vehicle where the two suspects were, authorities found another 270 kilos of cocaine, so authorities believe that the men were responsible for introducing the drug into the containers and that they intended to hide the remaining cargo.
