Prosecutors have charged eight men with involvement in the ring, said to have been one of the biggest of its kind in German history.
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The men are believed to be part of a wider network still thought to be in operation, which was responsible for importing two tonnes of cocaine into Germany between April 2017 and September 2018.
Evidence of the ring first came to light when supermarket workers in Bavaria came across small bags of cocaine tucked down the sides of banana boxes. The operation was brought to light by reporters from the Süddeutsche Zeitung and German broadcasters NDR and BR.
Police were able to trace the cocaine supplies back to the warehouses where they had been kept after arriving from Ecuador. The warehouses – so-called ripening halls – had been broken into several times by armed men.
Police ascertained that the bananas and cocaine supplies had been transported in the banana boxes from Ecuador and the gang was contracted to break into the warehouses and remove the drugs, seizing up to 320kg (705 pounds) each time.
The men are in custody in Landshut, Bavaria, where they are due to go on trial imminently. A surveillance operation to track the men involved around 500 customs officers, police and prosecutors who tracked eight break-ins at ripening halls in the states of Bavaria, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia and Saarland. They bugged the men’s telephone conversations and radio communications.
The group is believed to have been steered by other men in Hamburg. One of the main defendants in the upcoming court case is a 21-year-old identified only as Dario L, who is thought to have controlled operations from his rented flat in the northern port city, where police found delivery receipts for bananas. A 40-year-old identified only as Alberto K is believed to be the leader.
