Belarusian truck driver stole a container with bananas from a Swedish port. It contained one and a half tons of cocaine worth $156 million

In Sweden, a 35-year-old citizen of Belarus has been charged with a particularly serious drug offense. According to the investigation, in May 2025, he unauthorizedly removed a refrigerated container of bananas from the port of Helsingborg, in which about 1.5 tons of cocaine were hidden. This was reported by the Swedish Customs Service (Tullverket).

On May 14, 2025, employees of the Port of Helsingborg informed customs officials that a refrigerated container had been stolen from them. According to port systems, the day before, a tractor unit with a semi-trailer bearing Lithuanian license plates loaded the container and drove off with it without authorization. Customs officers identified the driver's name.

At the same time, the fruit importer found the container near its terminal in Helsingborg. The seal was broken. Bananas remained inside, but, according to customs officials, there was much more space, and part of the cargo was missing. Later, two Euro pallets and two seals were found in a parking lot in Landskrona.

"We understood that we needed to quickly apprehend the Belarusian driver before he left the country. We learned that the tractor unit with Lithuanian license plates was on the Nils Dacke ferry, which had departed from Trelleborg to Karlshamn. Before the ferry left Stillerud harbor to continue to Klaipėda, a group of customs officers boarded and apprehended the 35-year-old driver in the restaurant," said Robin Sjöstad, head of the criminal division group of Customs "South".

According to the investigation, the truck was driven to a parking lot in Landskrona, where it was met by two cars and the drugs were transferred. Camera footage shows more than 100 black bags being moved into a white rented van. Customs officials estimated that each bag contained 15 kilograms of cocaine — a total of about 1500 kilograms. The cocaine was taken to an apartment in Malmö.

A few days later, the apartment was broken into, and part of the cocaine was stolen. After the break-in, almost 232 kilograms of drugs and the same empty black bags as seen in the video from Landskrona were found there.

According to customs estimates, the total retail value of the cocaine is more than $156 million.

"This is a terrifyingly large quantity of cocaine. Moreover, one must also consider all the harm it inflicts on our society: serious organized crime and healthcare costs," said Robin Sjöstad.

Charges were filed in Malmö court on February 12, 2026. According to prosecutor Karin Lundström Kron, in addition to the Belarusian, three Norwegian citizens aged 30, 33, and 18, who were linked to the transfer of cocaine in Landskrona, and a 32-year-old Albanian citizen, in whose apartment the cocaine was allegedly stored, are accused of a particularly serious drug offense. The prosecutor demands that all five be deported from Sweden after serving their sentences and prohibited from returning.

The sixth accused, a 32-year-old man, is suspected of having broken into the apartment in Malmö with others and stolen no less than 270 kilograms of cocaine.

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