• The drug had been introduced among the legal merchandise using the 'blind hook' method

• The coffee cargo that the container was carrying, coming from Costa Rica, is commonly used by organizations to hide cocaine, given the difficulty of its handling.

March 4, 2024.- Customs Surveillance officials from the Tax Agency and agents from the Civil Guard have seized 419 kilos of cocaine in the port of Barcelona that was in a container with coffee from Costa Rica.

The container had been selected for inspection by the Risk Analysis Unit of Barcelona Customs. According to the information declared, the legal cargo consisted of 275 packages of about 70 kilos of coffee each, unpalletized, totaling more than 19,000 kilos.

Storing coffee in sacks in containers, and without organization on pallets, is a method that organizations usually use to hide cocaine shipments, since its handling is more complicated.

When passing through the scanner, it was found that, among the first bags of coffee, and close to the door, some suspicious packages could be seen, so Customs Surveillance and Civil Guard officials who work together both in the Risk Analysis Unit and in the container scanner, proceeded to track the merchandise to a logistics warehouse where the containers with coffee and cocoa are unloaded.

Upon arrival at the logistics warehouse, the doors of the container were opened, and it was immediately seen that on top of the coffee sacks there were some red and black packages which, when unloaded, were found to contain 361 shrink-wrapped cocaine pills, weighing 419 kilos.

This type of smuggling, where backpacks or bales of cocaine appear among the legal cargo without being hidden, as soon as the container is opened, is known as 'blind hook' or 'rip off'.

According to this technique, a third party who is part of the drug trafficking organization and who is not involved in the legal shipment, manages to reach the container, introduce the cocaine and close it, so that, when that container arrives at another port, other people in the organization open it, remove the drugs and close it again.

In order to ensure that the operation is quick and that there is less risk, in this method the cocaine is usually placed near the door, and sometimes the organisation has the support of operators who have access to restricted areas of the ports to move, load and unload the merchandise from the containers.