STA, 20 February 2020 - Following reports that North Macedonian police have discovered one kilo of cocaine in a Derby banana shipment, the brand's owner, Slovenian company Rastoder said it was the target of a criminal cartel.
According to Balkan media reports, the shipment, packed in Derby boxes, arrived from South America and was destined for Italy, via Balkan countries.
The bananas arrived from South America to Montenegro on a ship, after which part of the shipment was transported via Albania and North Macedonia. The drugs hidden among the bananas were allegedly destined to be sold in North Macedonia.
Macedonian police said that the bust dismantled an important smuggling route by which about 1.3 tonnes of cocaine had been smuggled to western Europe.
Rastoder issued a statement saying that the suspects apprehended were not linked to the company. It added that accessible data showed Rastoder was not subject of police investigation.
The company said that criminal rings were obviously abusing supply channels from South America for their criminal activity.
The company believes that this is a case of systemic abuse, noting that the North Macedonia shipment had passed all security checks, most recently at the Bar port in Montenegro.
Such supply channel abuse is not rare neither in South America nor Europe; more than to tonnes of illegal substances have been seized in Denmark, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Bulgaria and North Macedonia in 2020 alone.
Rastoder said that it had suspended its cooperation with the banana supplier as a precaution measure as soon as the shipment containing cocaine was discovered in North Macedonia.
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