Belgian police intercepted an eye-watering two metric tons of cocaine worth some 100 million euros this week, which was shippedto the Belgian port of Ghent from Brazil, Het Laatste Niews daily reports. The haul was packed in bricks labeled with logos of the ruling United Russia political party: a bear under the Russian tricolor flag.
This was the largest single drug seizure in the Port of Ghent ever, an East Flanders police official said. According to him, drug manufacturers tend to use such packages to distinguish their "brands" or mark a specific drug.
"Now, this is fame!" United Russia MP Yevgeny Revenko wrote in a playful Facebook post. "Latin American drug lords have heard about United Russia and have even decided to use part of our logo to conceal another batch of cocaine, this time [transported] from Brazil to Belgium." The crooks "might have simply liked the tricolor with our bear," Revenko suggested jokingly.
Latin American drug cartels apparently have a liking for catchy labels: in July, Guatemalan officials seized a speedboat with 823 kilograms of cocaine in packages featuring Brazilian football ace Neymar wearing a Barcelona jersey.