1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites

Going Bananas

jp/tt/apMarch 20, 2009

A supermarket employee in Illertissen, southern Germany, was busy unloading deliveries when she came across 28 kilos of Columbian cocaine concealed in two crates of bananas.

https://p.dw.com/p/HGKm
Bunches of bananas
There is so much more to bananas than meets the eyeImage: dpa

Faced with a box of suspicious-looking substance, the 26-year-old shelf stacker in Illertissen made sure she didn't blow it.

She immediately called the police, who wasted no time confiscating the narcotics.

The drugs were allegedly stashed in 26 yellow packages and buried under a thin layer of bananas. The crates had originally arrived in Antwerp, Belgium, and had been delivered by a local shipping company which also supplies other supermarkets in the region.

A hefty sum

Packets of cocaine
Who would've thought that drugs could be shelved at a local supermarketImage: AP

According to Ludwig Waldinger from the Bavarian State Office for Criminal Investigation, the surprise delivery has a street value of some 1,4 million euros.

The crates were probably mixed up when they were being loaded onto the delivery trucks, he surmised.

"Whoever was intended to receive this will certainly do a double-take when they see what they received instead of cocaine," he said.

Last month, a cashier was sacked from her job in a Berlin supermarket after 31 years of service because her employer accused her of stealing 1.30 euros ($1.65).

The case was a reminder to supermarket staff, if one was needed, that they have to keep firmly on the right side of the law these days.