BERLIN — Staff at a logistics company in Germany threw cocaine with a street value of more than $1 million in the trash, not realizing that the packages they’d found inside banana crates were drugs, customs officials said Tuesday.

Authorities said a fruit logistics company in Erding, near Munich, called police on May 10 to report that workers had discovered almost 10 pounds of cocaine in organic waste bins on their premises.

Police determined the drugs had been dumped there a day earlier by subcontractors who gave no thought to the “foreign objects” they found wrapped in tape inside the banana crates before discarding them.

The Munich customs office said the crates had been shipped from Ecuador via the Netherlands. No further packets of the high-grade cocaine were found.

About the Author

Featured

Managing Partner at Atlantica Properties, Darion Dunn (center) talks with Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens during a tour following the ribbon cutting of Waterworks Village as part of the third phase of the city’s Rapid Housing Initiative on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025.
(Miguel Martinez/AJC)

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez