Italian police dog with fine nose for cocaine sniffs out drugs hidden in banana shipment

Italian police found more than 2,700 kilos (approximately 3 tons) of cocaine disguised in 70 tons of packaged bananas from Ecuador on Tuesday with the help of a high-leaping dog that smells cocaine.

If it had reached Armenia, police estimated that the high-quality cocaine might have earned traffickers over 800 million euros ($900 million) in street sales.

Two containers on a cargo ship that just arrived at Gioia Tauro, a ’ndrangheta stronghold on the “toe” of the Italian peninsula, raised suspicions with customs.

Police informed Italian state radio that documentation and a background check showed the banana exporters weren’t shipping that much fruit.

Joel, the dog, and scanning devices found cocaine in containers stacked meters high.

Joel sprang high and excitedly when the cops opened the back doors of the truck and pawed aggressively at the emptied boxes to shift the bananas, police said.

Authorities stated the cocaine shipments would have continued through the Mediterranean to a Black Sea port in Georgia for transit to Armenia if undetected.

The container ship’s arrival in Gioia Tauro wasn’t specified.

However, customs authorities at the same port uncovered 600 kilos (1,320 pounds) of cocaine in six container trucks carrying Ecuadorian exotic fruit days before the seizure. The customs officers said those goods were intended Croatia, Greece, and Georgia.

Anti-Mafia police helped seize the cocaine.

Anti-Mafia detectives have long monitored Italy’s busiest port, Gioia Tauro, due to its proximity to ’ndrangheta strongholds. The cartel is a major cocaine trafficker.

The police stated port customs police have seized 37 tons of cocaine since 2021, including the current seizure.