Update, November 12: As of Thursday morning, NACOC had not publicly commented on the seizure, 3News reported. The Spanish statement does not name the Ghanaian exporter of the coconuts or the importing company in Spain, 3News noted.

Spanish authorities say they have seized 2,600 kilograms of cocaine hidden in two shipping containers of coconuts that were loaded at Ghana's Tema Port.

Spain's Tax Agency, which runs the country's Customs Surveillance Service, and the Guardia Civil announced the seizure in a joint statement on Wednesday, November 11, 2026.

How the drugs were found

According to the Tax Agency, the containers were loaded at Tema on August 2 and arrived at the port of Valencia aboard a container ship on August 22. A customs risk-analysis unit had selected them for inspection after assessing them as "presenting a high risk profile".

Inspectors found false bottoms in the wooden crates carrying the declared cargo of coconuts. Beneath them, the agency said, was a layer of packages "of the type commonly used to transport cocaine" in each box. Field tests confirmed the white powder was cocaine.

Two people held in Almería

After seizing the drugs, officers tracked the containers as they left the port. The goods were moved into two refrigerated lorries and driven to a warehouse on the La Juaida industrial estate in Almería, in southern Spain.

Officers watched the unloading there and then detained two people in the municipality of Viator, the Tax Agency said: the importer of the goods and the person responsible for unloading them. Spanish authorities have not named them.

What is not known

Spanish authorities have not said where the cocaine was placed in the crates, whether anyone in Ghana has been identified, or whether Ghanaian agencies took part in the investigation. Loading at Tema does not, on its own, show where the drugs entered the supply chain.

GhEcho found no public comment from the Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC), the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority or the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority at the time of writing.

The operation involved the Customs Surveillance Service's Valencia and Almería units and the Guardia Civil's organised-crime units in Valencia, according to the Tax Agency.

GhEcho will update this story if Ghanaian or Spanish authorities release more information.