Cocaine Shipment Of 1.3 Tonnes Almost Smuggled To Estonia From Ecuador - Police

HELSINKI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th January, 2021) Estonia was likely to have been picked as a transit country for a 1.3-tonne shipment of cocaine, which was seized earlier in Ecuador, Ago Leis, the head of the Central Criminal Police's organized crime unit, said Sunday.

On Saturday, Ecuadorean Minister of Government Patricio Pazmino Castillo announced that the police had seized 1.3 tonnes of cocaine in a container bound for Estonia. According to Leis, the recent data shows that drugs usually enter Europe through Dutch, Belgian and Spanish ports.

"The hidden drugs would have been taken from the container before sending it to Estonia, or Estonia was planned to serve as a transit country. When we are talking about a shipment that large, no way it was for the Estonian market," Leis told the Postimees news outlet.

The police officer noted an important role of data exchange between international partners in curbing the drug trade, including cooperation networks such as Europol and Interpol, as well as direct contacts with other countries' police.