Police seize cocaine at Nespresso coffee factory in Switzerland – NBC10 Philadelphia
Swiss police say an investigation is underway after workers at a Nespresso warehouse in western Switzerland found 500 kilograms (over 1,100 pounds) of cocaine with a street value of $50 million while unloading coffee beans arriving by train was.
Regional police in Friborg said late Thursday they were alerted by the company to the discovery at the facility in the town of Romont on Monday and immediately set up a “wide security perimeter” around them with a large deployment of officers. Customs and border control officials were called in.
Initial clues were that the shipment had turned up in five containers that had arrived by sea from Brazil before being transferred onto a train, authorities said.
“The cocaine seized is 80 percent pure and its market value is estimated at over 50 million Swiss francs,” police said, adding that the stash was apparently “intended for the European market.”
This was announced on Friday by the European Union’s law enforcement agency Europol and the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction Cocaine availability in Europe “is likely to be at an all-time high”.
Switzerland is not a member of the EU, but is part of the Schengen zone, which allows visa-free travel between many European countries.
The monitoring center estimates that the retail market for cocaine in the EU will be worth at least 10.5 billion euros ($11.1 billion) in 2020, but warns that the figure likely underestimates the true size of the market .
The largest quantities of cocaine are seized in Belgian, Dutch and Spanish ports, but increasing quantities are also appearing in other ports, “suggesting that trafficking groups are expanding their activities into ports where cocaine ban measures are perceived as less intensive”. .
Swiss food and drink giant Nestle, which owns Nespresso, wanted to reassure customers that “all our products are safe to consume”.
“We have strict quality controls on green coffee that arrives at our warehouses through to the finished product,” the Vevey, Switzerland-based company said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press. “The substance in question has not come into contact with any of our products or manufacturing equipment used to manufacture our products.”
Nestle said it could not provide further details because of the ongoing police investigation.