Luxembourg destroyed half a tonne of cocaine
Colin Davis, Unsplash
In February 2025, Luxembourg customs authorities intercepted the largest airborne drug shipment in the country's history at the airport's Cargo Centre - 508 kilograms of cocaine hidden in a cargo of 3.6 tonnes of tapioca from Brazil. The Luxembourg prosecutor said on Monday the entire volume of drugs had been destroyed a month and a half after the seizure.
The estimated market value of the consignment is around 100 million euros. For Luxembourg, this is an absolute record for air cargo traffic. The drugs were concealed in food starch derived from cassava roots, a method of disguise designed to pass standard checks.
Notably, just a few days earlier, in early February, another large-scale shipment was discovered in Luxembourg - some 900 kilograms of cocaine disguised inside the cylinders of a rock-crushing machine that came from Colombia.
Officials have not commented on whether the two cases are related. Customs referred to the ongoing investigation, but the scale of events points to possible systemic drug trafficking channels into the region.
