Two Colombian men were indicted by Swiss authorities on charges of smuggling 660kg of cocaine into the country.
The Colombians were allegedly part of a drug smuggling network that disguised the drug in boxes of bananas, pushing South American cocaine into the Swiss market between 2004 and 2005. The men were arrested in Spain and extradited to Switzerland in September 2010 reported newspaper El Espectador.
According to the Swiss Attorney General, the “sophisticated” operation saw cocaine travel from Colombia to Belgium by sea, before it was transported overland to Switzerland, where it could be trafficked throughout Europe.
The indictment states that during 2006 and 2007 the alleged drug dealers started using double-bottomed boxes of bananas to smuggle “substantial quantities” of cocaine into Switzerland.
The prosecution also accused the Colombians of laundering $550,000 between 2004 and 2006.
Swiss members of the criminal network have already been sentenced to multiple years in prison, while the two Colombian men await to testify in front of Switzerland’s Federal Criminal Court on a date to be determined.
