Dutch police have uncovered £10 million worth of cocaine stuffed inside two coffins.
Officers managed to thwart the brazen smuggling attempt and seized 250kg of the class A drug after noticing a van with French number plates driving erratically.
A 30 year-old French suspect was arrested in the raid near Numansdorp, a southern town in the Netherlands, on Dec 13.
After pulling the vehicle over, police discovered two closed coffins inside, which the driver claimed contained bodies.
The Dutch Police National Expertise and Operations Unit said: “He was driving a van with French licence plates on the A29 near Numansdorp and displayed suspicious [driving] behaviour.”
The statement continued: “We stopped the driver and asked for an explanation. He claimed to be transporting coffins with two bodies.
“However, the documents did not check out.”
After pulling the vehicle over, police discovered closed coffins inside, which the driver claimed contained bodies – @Pol_Exp_Ope
After officers drove to the funeral home to verify the man’s claims, they discovered the coffins had no bodies inside and had been filled with duffle bags containing bricks of cocaine.
Pictures from the raid showed black, drugs-filled sports bags tightly packed inside the wooden coffins.
The suspect allegedly intended to travel from France to the Netherlands but was unsure of his final destination. He said he was supposed to receive further instructions en route.
The police confirmed the drugs, which had a street value of €13 million (£10 million), had been destroyed.
The wooden coffins had been tightly packed with drug-filled black sports bags – @Pol_Exp_Ope
It is not the first time that funeral caskets have been used to smuggle illegal substances, however. In 2019, Colombian drug traffickers were caught attempting to transport 300kg of cannabis inside a coffin.
Earlier this month, Dutch police said it had worked closely with colleagues in the UK National Crime Agency on one of Britain’s largest-ever drugs bust operations.
Prosecutors said they believed the gang, led by Paul Green, 59, smuggled heroin, cocaine and cannabis worth up to £7 billion into the UK in shipments of strong-smelling foodstuffs, such as onions, garlic and ginger.
After two trials, with one lasting a record 23 months, 18 people were convicted and three more have since been jailed.
The gang, which was based in north-west England with accomplices in the Netherlands, reportedly purchased up to 50 tonnes of onions every week, which it sent back and forth between the two countries.
Footage was also released in December showing armed police storming the headquarters of a drug-trafficking gang in the UK, who smuggled £210 million worth of cocaine in a shipment of bananas.
Inside the Tottenham industrial estate, officers discovered 41 pallets of bananas from South America, which had been used to conceal 2.7 tonnes of cocaine.
Elsewhere this week, Polish authorities seized 44 litres of liquid cocaine worth about 7.5 million zlotys (£1.45 million) that was hidden in cartons of wine.