Peruvian undercover drug officers seized more than two metric tonnes (MT) of cocaine hidden in banana containers, which were to be shipped from the port of Paita to Belgium, website Eltiempo.pe reported.

Three people were arrested in Sullana and three containers were immobilized in warehouses belonging to logistics firm Ransa in Paita on Sunday night.

A drug ring, which has possible branches in Ecuador and Europe, was unaware intelligence officers had been watching their activities for the past fortnight.

They had rented a lot in Sullana Industrial Zone and aroused suspicion when they insisted on employing their own staff to pack the bananas, who only worked at dawn and night.

Detectives were even more suspicious when they found six of the export containers had been stored for a week when usually bananas are transported as rapidly as possible.

According to media reports, five days earlier the organization had successfully shipped out three banana containers to Belgium to mislead authorities.

Undercover agents inflitrated the warehouses where they found high quality cocaine bricks hidden in typical bananas boxes.

The cocaine was earmarked for two different destinations with some of the bricks bearing a lion symbol while the others had Don Quixote on his horse.

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