• The manager of the importing company was arrested for bringing the contaminated merchandise into the country.

• Customs controls in Valencia allowed the detection of the drugs, which had been attached to silicone discs painted to imitate the color of the bottom of the drums.

September 12, 2025.- Customs Surveillance officers from the Tax Agency in Valencia and agents from the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police of the Civil Guard in Cuenca, in a joint operation, seized 262 kilos of cocaine hidden inside more than 100 drums of frozen fruit pulp and arrested an individual linked to the seizure.

The investigation began in January when it became known that two containers had arrived at the port of Valencia from Buenaventura, Colombia. Customs Surveillance investigators suspected they could be used to smuggle narcotics into Colombia.

The investigators' initial intention was to carry out a controlled delivery of the fruit containers to their intended destination in the province of Valencia. However, when the merchandise was subjected to the usual controls carried out by customs authorities at the terminals of the Port of Valencia, a pesticide was detected in the cargo in quantities that prevented its importation, given that it was a product intended for food production. Therefore, the importer requested its destruction.

The investigators then decided to closely monitor the transfer of the containers from the port of Valencia to the town of Villalpardo (Cuenca), where the drums containing the frozen fruit pulp were to be destroyed.

In order to rule out any concealment techniques, investigators conducted a thorough inspection of the containers on August 13 before their destruction.

Silicone discs impregnated with cocaine

During the inspection, investigators, in collaboration with the company in charge of the destruction, drilled holes in the base of the drums using tools such as drills and radial saws. A whitish substance was found inside several of them, which, after analysis, tested positive for cocaine. A total of 105 plates were seized, weighing approximately 262 kilos of the drug.

The substance found at the base of the drums corresponded to circular silicone plates or discs impregnated with cocaine. These elements were wrapped in white-painted plastic that imitated the tone of the inside of the drums in order to simulate their original background. This concealment method was intended to make it difficult to detect the narcotic substance by making the plates appear to be a structural part of the drum itself.

The following morning, the manager of the importing company was arrested as the person responsible for the introduction of the merchandise into national territory. After his release from custody, the Court ordered the suspect to be placed in preventive detention.