Coca-Cola workers found a huge stash of cocaine when they opened a delivery of fruit juice concentrate from Costa Rica at their factory in southern France.
Local newspaper Var-Matin said the haul weighed 370 kg (815 pounds) with a potential street value of around 50 million euros (42.76 million pounds). Those figures could not be confirmed by Coca-Cola and the local prosecutor could not be reached for comment.
“You can well imagine the surprise,” said a spokesperson for Coca-Cola, adding that the workers alerted police and were ruled out as potential suspects. The stash was hidden inside a container of juice that was opened on arrival at the factory in the town of Signes on Aug 26.
According to BBC, the seizure of 370kg of cocaine makes it one of the largest finds on French soil. The last big seizure of cocaine involving French authorities was in April 2015, when French customs officers aided in the arrest of two men caught trying to sail a yacht loaded with 250kg of the drug to the UK. The SY Hygeia of Halsa was boarded off Martinique and found to be carrying cocaine with a street value of some £40m. (Reuters)
