Plantains have once again been used as a hiding place for cocaine bound for Europe. Between 2 and 3 July 2026, officers from the Comando provinciale della Guardia di Finanza di Savona (Provincial Command of the Savona finance police), supported by the Nucleo di Polizia Economico-Finanziaria di Genova (Genoa Economic and Financial Police Unit) and the Sezione Antifrode dell'Agenzia delle Dogane Liguria 3 (Anti-Fraud Section of the Liguria 3 Customs Agency), seized 300 blocks of narcotics at the port of Vado Ligure, with a total weight of more than 340 kilograms. An analysis carried out during the inspection classified the substance as pure cocaine. The blocks were hidden in a shipment of plantains inside a container arriving from one of Colombia’s main ports. Investigators said the operation was the result of intensive analysis of trade routes linking South America with the port of Vado Ligure, a gateway described by the authorities as a significant crossroads for commercial flows towards Europe. Had the shipment reached the market, it would have generated an estimated retail revenue of around €120 million for criminal organisations.
The seizure is part of a series of similar cases involving the Savona-Vado Ligure port complex since 2022. The largest previous seizure by quantity dates back to January 2023, when divers from the Guardia di Finanza found 741 blocks of cocaine in the seawater intakes of the engines of a Hong Kong-flagged merchant vessel arriving from the Brazilian port of Santos. The weight was later reassessed at more than one tonne. That investigation began with the arrest of four Albanian traffickers stopped in Celle Ligure with 3.5 quintals of narcotics in a B&B. In August of the same year, another port seizure involved 154 kilograms of cocaine. The previous case, in 2022, led to the discovery of 240 kilograms hidden in pockets created inside a shipment of leather, with an estimated value at the time of €20 million.
