Brazilian cops seize 2.5kg of cocaine hidden inside frozen fish on Amazon riverboat
- Brazil’s Federal Police confiscated 2.5 kilos of cocaine that were concealed in frozen fish
- The fish were left inside a refrigerator on a boat that was docked in Tonantins, Amazonas
Brazilian police have confiscated 2.5 kilos of cocaine that was concealed inside frozen fish on an Amazon riverboat.
Cops made the discovery while conducting an inspection on boats that were docked in the Tonantins, Amazonas, last Monday.
Footage released by the Federal Police shows a cop slicing open one of fish, where the cocaine was hidden by the drug traffickers.
The traffickers split two-and-a-half kilos into four plastic-wrapped packages.
Cops in Tonantins, Brazil, confiscated a cocaine shipment of 2.5 kilos concealed within fish that had been left in the refrigerator of a boat for drug traffickers to pick up
An agent with Brazil’s Federal Police opens one of the four frozen ship that drug traffickers recently used to hide 2.5 kilos of cocaine
Each small bundle of cocaine was covered with a black sheet that was sealed with plastic and then placed in the fish.
Witnesses told police that the suspects arrived on a motorcycle taxi and left the cocaine-stuffed fish in the vessel’s refrigerator.
Traffickers would have then removed the drugs during an upcoming annual fish fairs scheduled across Amazonas.
‘These traffickers should receive a double sentence, for the crime of trafficking and for wasting food,’ a resident said, according to local media.
The drug bust was made public for the first time Tuesday as Federal Police investigators continue to search for the suspects involved.
Drug trafficking is punishable with up to 15 years in prison, according to Brazilian law.
Each fish contained a plastic-wrapped bundle with cocaine inside that was stored inside a refrigerator of a boat that was docked in the Brazilian city of Tonantins
Drug traffickers in Brazil attempted to outsmart law enforcement by placing bundles of cocaine inside four frozen fish
The concealment of the cocaine inside the fish is the latest example of how drug traffickers are always seeking to outsmart authorities.
In August, cops at El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá, Colombia, confiscated a box with 11 Virgin Mary figurines that smugglers used to hide 2.6 kilos of cocaine that were destined for Orihuela, Spain.
In May, police at José María Córdova International Airport in the Colombian city of Medellín intercepted a shipment bound for Spain that contained 1.6 kilos of cocaine concealed within three bags that contained a red liquid that were labeled as blood samples.
Data released Tuesday by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime showed that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, close to 2,000 tons of cocaine were produced in 2020.
The U.N.’s Global Report on Cocaine 2023 also found that in 2022, coca crops covered some 2,300 square kilometers of Colombia’s territory, an increase of 13 percent from the previous year. The potential cocaine output rose 24 percent to 1,738 tons.
‘The Covid-19 pandemic had a disruptive effect on drug markets. With international travel severely curtailed, producers struggled to get their product to market,’ the report indicated. ‘Night clubs and bars were shut as officials ramped up their attempts to control the virus, causing demand to slump for drugs like cocaine.’
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