Swiss police reported this Thursday the discovery at a plant of the coffee firm Nespresso of a shipment of cocaine hidden in a container that had arrived from Brazil and was supposed to transport coffee beans.
After laboratory analyzes confirmed that it was highly pure cocaine, the police proceeded to search another five containers that had arrived at the plant the same day and discovered more than 500 kilos of drugs believed to have been destined for the European market.
It was the Nespresso company itself that reported to the police that its workers had found a white substance when unloading the bags of coffee beans that they had come from Brazilfirst by sea and then by train to the town of Romont, where the firm -belonging to the multinational Nestlé- has one of its factories.
In a statement, the police of the canton of Fribourg – in which Romont is located – indicated that they carried out a thorough search of the facilities and that he used scanning devices from other containers.
The cantonal Prosecutor’s Office indicated that it has opened an investigation into this fact.
The cocaine might come from Colombia. In 2019 Nesspreso launched a pilot plan to help replace 400 hectares of coca leaves with coffee in southwestern Colombia. The program began in the municipality of El Rosario, in the department of Nariño, and involved 1,000 families.