Spanish police said on Friday they had seized four metric tons of cocaine hidden in rice sacks at Barcelona's port, breaking up a crime ring that operated in Spain, Paraguay and Britain.
The drug smugglers processed the drugs into powder in Asuncion, Paraguay, and then put them plastic bags which were hidden inside sacks of rice sewn by hand before shipping them to Europe, the statement said.
The containers arrived at Barcelona's port earlier this year but the haul of cocaine was only discovered in July when the smugglers moved the containers, police said.
Authorities in Paraguay and Britain seized another five tons of cocaine smuggled by the same criminal organisation in two different raids in recent months.
Three tons of cocaine were seized in Paraguay before the drugs could be shipped to Belgium in October 2023, while in March British police seized two tons of cocaine at the port of Southampton that were bound for a Spanish company under investigation, which is based in Toledo.
Police arrested eight people in Spain, while two people were arrested in Paraguay, the statement said.
(Reuters - Reporting by Emma Pinedo; editing by Charlie Devereux and Ros Russell)