Swiss police have made one of their biggest ever cocaine hauls in one of the Rhine ports near Basel, they announced on Friday.
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Workers found 70 kilograms of white powder in four bags when they were unloading a container of coffee from Guatemala in Muttenz on Wednesday.
The police put the black market value of the drugs at between SFr7-8 million ($6.4 – 7.3 million). They said the cocaine was almost certainly not destined for Switzerland. If it had been, it would no longer have been in the container when it was unloaded.
The largest cocaine haul ever made in Switzerland was in 2007, when the Zurich police found 124 kg in an apartment and garage in the city. The same police force made a 79 kg find in 2006.
It is not the first time cocaine has been seized in a Rhine port. In 2006 57 kg was found in a container of coffee from Colombia.
Basel is the furthest navigable point on the Rhine. Goods are distributed from there to destinations all over Europe.
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