Massive cocaine bust in Peru

Updated 08.49 Tue May 06 2008

Keywords: Peru, cocaine

Peruvian police have found two tons of cocaine in a warehouse at the port of El Callao in Lima.

The drugs had been hidden amongst bentonite, a clay used in the paper and metal-casting industries.

The bags of mixed cocaine and clay seized weighed 4.8 tons (4.4 metric tons), of which police estimate up to 2.2 tons (2 metric tons) is pure cocaine

Investigators said the shipment was about to be sent to Italy.

Police Chief Octavio Salazar said: "We have been working with personnel from Dinandro (National Anti-Drug Bureau) for 72 hours to find the 3,600 sacks.

"There are four containers with 3,600 sacks, 219 of them had this mixture of mineral and drugs."

The bags of mixed cocaine and clay seized weighed 4.8 tons (4.4 metric tons), of which police estimate up to 2.2 tons (2 metric tons) is pure cocaine.

A representative of the unidentified company that shipped the drugs, the company's Peruvian chauffeur and a Colombian allegedly serving as a chemist for the operation, have been arrested.

Peru is the world's largest coca and cocaine producer, after Colombia.