Czechs seize record amount of cocaine in banana shipment

PRAGUE (AP) - A record amount of cocaine was seized in a shipment for supermarkets in the Czech Republic, police said Friday.

They said 840 kilograms (1,852 pounds) of cocaine were discovered in cardboard boxes with bananas by employees in supermarkets in northern towns of Jicin and Rychnov nad Kneznou. Officers are now searching other stores in the country where banana boxes from the same shipment abroad were delivered.

Police said they were cooperating on the case with their counterparts from other unspecified countries.

Jakub Frydrych, the head of the police anti-narcotics unit, told the Czech public radio the cocaine likely originated in Central America.

The street value of the drug is estimated to be more than 2 billion Czech crowns ($86 million).

In a similar case in 2015, over 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of cocaine was discovered in a Prague supermarket. In 1999, police seized 117 kilograms (258 pounds) of cocaine in a warehouse north of Prague packed among dry fruit.