Montenegro police report finding 1 ton of cocaine in bananas

PODGORICA, Montenegro (AP) — Police in Montenegro said they seized over 1 ton (2,000 pounds) of cocaine hidden in a shipment of bananas.

The seizure is the biggest in the history of Montenegro, police said Friday on Twitter.

Officers discovered the cocaine, which was divided into 1,250 packages, on Thursday night in Mojanovici, a village near the capital, police said in a statement earlier on Friday.

Montenegrin media reported that police blocked off a broad area during the search operation. Police said two people were arrested but did not provide any details.

The seizure demonstrated “power and determination” in fighting organized crime and Montenegro’s reliability as an international partner, police said.

Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic said later Friday he was proud of the team that dealt the “biggest blow to drug traffickers in the history of Montenegro.”

“Our children and our citizens won’t be held hostages to organized crime,” Krivokapic said on Twitter. “We’ve only just started!”

The small Adriatic Sea nation of some 620,000 people needs to root out organized crime and corruption to move forward in its bid to join the European Union. Montenegro already is a NATO member.

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