The police and the Norwegian Customs Service were today notified of a major discovery of drugs at one of Bama’s warehouses. It was one of the employees who discovered it and reported it. The seizure may be related to the previous large seizures, and other large seizures in Europe recently. – We were contacted by a representative from Bama, who said they had made another discovery of what was believed to be cocaine, in a container with bananas, acting unit leader Knut Lutro of the Oslo police told news. It was quickly measured to be a find of 600 kilos. Cocaine explosion This is the third time in four months that a large drug discovery has been made at the fruit and vegetable wholesaler Bama. Last year, 117 kilograms of cocaine were seized in Norway, according to the police’s annual report. So far this year, more than two tonnes – 2,000 kilograms – of cocaine have been seized during three finds at Bama alone. The police cooperated with international police, but have so far not arrested anyone. Ship from South America – The container has come from a ship from South America, but we do not want to say anything more about which port it has come from. It came as a legal cargo of bananas to the port of Oslo, and was then transported to Bama, says Lutro. This is the third major seizure in a few months. – Has the investigation of the first two cases brought you any closer to the perpetrators? – What I want to say about that is that no one has been arrested in the case, but we are investigating broadly in collaboration with international contacts in Interpol and Europol, and the Customs Service here at home. – Do you know anything about a potential recipient environment in Norway? – We work according to several hypotheses. One is that it wasn’t even going to Norway. What we see from other large seizures in Europe is that the substance has been taken out in a container port along the way. So we don’t know if it was intended for Norway or the Nordic countries. – Does that mean that there may have been an error along the way, or that Norway is an intermediate station? – The final destination for the legal cargo was Norway, but we have seen previously that the substance has been taken out during transport. Will notify the perpetrators In the past, the police have found a tracking tag in the deliveries, but Lutro does not want to say anything about what kind of trace they have now. – We are in the very initial phase of the investigation, so we cannot say anything about what we have or have not found. – What do you have to work on in the investigation from the other cases? – We investigate widely. Much of the same mode as before, with legal cargo from South America to Europe. The police are releasing information earlier than they usually do, in order to inform the perpetrators. The message is: We have the substance. – When it comes to such large values, this can also pose a security risk. The police therefore go public so early in the investigation with a message to actors connected to this substance, nationally or internationally, that the lot has been seized by the police. In both March and April, similar cocaine seizures were made in banana crates at Bama:
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New drug seizure at Bama – have taken two tonnes of cocaine in four months – news Oslo og Viken – Local news, TV and radio
