Pineapples served as containers to hide cocaine from Central America to Spain. Photo courtesy of Spain Interior Ministry

ALGECIRAS, Spain, June 1 (UPI) -- Spanish customs officials confiscated 440 pounds of cocaine found inside pineapples that traveled from Central America.

The shipment arrived at the southern port of Algeciras from an undisclosed location in Central America.


"Among the thousands of fresh pineapples inside the 12 containers, they found fruit hollowed out and stuffed with drugs and then covered with a yellow wax that simulated the color of pineapple pulp," an Interior Ministry statement said.

According to ABC, authorities were able to stop the exportation from Spain to other European countries, like Holland and Belgium, and detained three men suspected of being linked to the transactions.

This is not the first time traffickers have used pineapples to export drugs. ABC reports, "Last year, police in Algeciras seized 2.5 tonnes of cocaine hidden inside a shipment of pineapples arriving from Costa Rica – one of the biggest ever seizures of the drug in Spain."