Norway Makes Country’s Largest-Ever Cocaine Seizure in Oslo

Norway Makes Country’s Largest-Ever Cocaine Seizure in Oslo
Fruit importer Bama's offices in Oslo, Norway, on March 30, 2023. Hanna Johre/NTB Scanpix via AP
The Associated Press
Updated:

COPENHAGEN, Denmark—Police made the largest-ever cocaine seizure in Norway when they discovered 800 kilograms (1,760 pounds) of the drug in boxes of fruit in Oslo, officials said.

Norwegian news agency NTB said late Thursday that the drugs were found this week following a tipoff from German police who seized 1,200 kilograms (2,645 pounds) in Potsdam on Tuesday.

Police didn’t disclose the exact date that the cocaine was found in Oslo, or where the fruit originated from. No one has been arrested in Norway.

Police spokeswoman Grete Lien Metlid was quoted by NTB as saying that it was the largest seizure ever in Norway. She said that it was too early to say whether the cocaine was intended for the Norwegian market, or if Norway was being used as a transit point.

“We cannot rule out that there are larger networks with connections to Norway,” Lien Metlid told NTB.

The fruit boxes had arrived at a warehouse facility of Bama, a large Norwegian fruit and vegetable wholesaler, company spokesman Pia Gulbrandsen said in a statement.

The previous largest seizures of cocaine in Norway was in 2013 when 153 kilograms (337 pounds), were seized, and in 2013 when 145 kilograms (319 pounds) of cocaine were hidden in banana boxes, the news agency said.