FREEPORT, Texas — Pallets of bananas that went unclaimed at port near Houston yielded a bunch of cocaine worth nearly $18 million, KHOU reported.
A business in Freeport, Texas, offered two pallets of the fruit to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice because they had not been claimed at the Ports of America, the television station reported.
As two sergeants from the Scott Unit removed the 45 boxes of bananas, they discovered 540 packages of cocaine, KTRK reported.
U.S. Customs officials and DEA agents were called to the scene and estimated the street value of the cocaine at $17,820,000.
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"It's a very significant seizure," DEA Special Agent Wendell Campbell told the television station.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jeremy Desel told KTRK that one of the boxes of bananas "didn't seem quite right."
“They looked inside and saw something extraordinarily suspicious,” Desel told the television station. “(They) raised a red flag to the Customs officials, who started an investigation.”
U.S. Customs did not comment about the discovery, along with the business that offered the donation, KTRK reported.
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