Blowing the "Lid" off the Cocaine Scheme

Blowing the Lid Off Cocaine Scheme

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Drug traffickers in Brazil are using plastic lavatory seats to transport cocaine.

Rio de Janeiro police Tuesday found 12 such seats containing 2.2 pounds of pure Colombian cocaine each and destined for export. Investigator Ricardo Teixeira said such a find was unprecedented.

Police found the drugs at a warehouse after a tip-off. Teixeira told Reuters more could be hidden in 23 other seats in the batch, which was bound for Angola, from where it would have been transported to Europe.

No one was arrested and police were hunting for the smugglers.

The pure substance could have yielded up to 10 times the value of the cocaine that is normally sold in the streets.

Brazil's main cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are important connection points that drug traffickers use to ship Colombian cocaine mainly to Europe.