Spanish police uncover nine tons of cocaine in record breaking bust

Spanish police have seized a record nine tons of cocaine concealed in a shipment of bananas from Colombia.

Six people have been arrested after police found the drug hidden among boxes of bananas in a shipping container at the southern port of Algeciras.

The stash was the largest ever found in a single shipping container in Europe.

Such a haul would have a street value of between £262m and £349m in the UK, according to drug information service DrugWise.

Of the six arrested in relation to the find, two were detained in Lyon, France, one in Algeciras and three in Malaga.

In a statement, customs officials said the container was imported by a Colombian company on a ship coming from the Colombian port of Turbo.

Customs did not say when the bust was made, though the shipment was last inspected by police on Sunday, according to the statement.

Spain's interior minister, Juan Ignacio Zoido, vowed to fight traffickers and "to keep drugs out of the streets."

Algericas handled 101 million tons of shipments in 2017, and is Spain's busiest cargo port and a main entry for cocaine into Europe.

It is the Mediterranean's largest port and a trans-shipment hub used by firms to unload cargo and redistribute it in Europe or the Middle East.

In December, authorities seized six tons of cocaine there.