Two tonnes of cocaine worth 100m euros in Hamburg, including Albanians among those arrested

Some people have been arrested in the port city of Hamburg after being caught with more than two tons of cocaine.

Authorities estimate that drugs are worth around $100m euros (112m, according to DW.

This is an extraordinary success and one of the biggest seizures in an ongoing” operation, said Hamburg Interior Minister Andy Grote.

Police have reportedly found cocaine when they searched a shipping container in the Rothenburg district, near Hamburg port. Inside they allegedly found cocaine hidden in banana boxes.

According to police, the shipping container had to be driven by truck from the Altenerder container terminal to an X-ray object for customs control, but the driver declined from the road.

Police said the truck instead stopped at a warehouse behind a transport company, where suspects allegedly wanted to exchange drugs for bananas.

Task Police Task Force has intervened at the moment of the shipment and has arrested 12 people, abcnews reports.

German media report that those arrested are aged 21 to 43 and came from Germany, Turkey, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Albania and India. Some of them were said to have been known to police for drug-related acts.