Cocaine worth £1million found in box of bananas by stunned Tesco worker

Drugs with an estimated street value of more than £1million have been found inside a box of bananas by a stunned Tesco worker.

The young employee was unpacking the fruit when he discovered five bags, each weighing 1kg and containing a white powder that is believed to be cocaine.

Police were called to the superstore in Wokingham, Berks, following the startling find last Wednesday.

Experts said that if the drug was proved to be cocaine, each packet could be worth up to £250,000 to dealers, depending on its purity.

The box of bananas reportedly had red tape around it, possibly put there by smugglers to distinguish it from the others.

A source said: “The boxes of bananas were piled up in a metal cage and being unwrapped ready to put on the shelves. The young man spotted the box with red tape and decided to take a closer look.

“He opened the box and saw the packets underneath the bananas. He was understandably shocked. You don’t need to be a genius to know what it is.”

Another source added: “Staff are a bit worried as drug smugglers are desperate people. They could come looking for their cocaine.

“It’s terrible to think of the human misery this stuff would have caused if it had ended up on the streets.”

Thames Valley Police said: “We were called to reports of packages being found in a consignment of fruit.

“These are believed to have been Class A drugs. No arrests have been made.”

A Tesco spokesman said: “We are helping police with their investigations.”

More than 250,000 boxes of bananas are imported every week by Tesco from the Americas.

Most of the bananas originate in Costa Rica, where cocaine smuggling and production is rife.

Last year authorities seized more than 25 tons of the drug, a greater amount than from any other Central American country.

The supermarket giant’s website boasts that it works directly with a select number of farms.

Last year almost half of Tesco’s supply of bananas came from just 12 farms in Costa Rica and Columbia that work exclusively with the company.

After being imported, bananas are transported to Tesco “fresh distribution centres” – of which there are dozens across the UK – and then sent out to stores.

Earlier this year, Maria Layton, 43, discovered eggs of the world’s most venomous spider in a bag of bananas bought at a Tesco store in Pontardawe, South Wales.

That fruit had been shipped from Costa Rica.

The bite of the Brazilian Wandering Spider can kill a human in under an hour – and can also give a man a painful four-hour erection.

Culled