If You Like Piña Coladas, Or Getting Caught With Cocaine

Pineapples are having a big week. First, floating pineapples turned up on the shores of Shetland, Scotland, months after containers of the fruit were lost at sea. Now, a different kind of shipment has shown up at a food market in Madrid, where cylinders of cocaine were discovered in hollowed-out pineapples at the city's second-largest food market.

The Independent reports, "The company that had imported the pineapples from Costa Rica had been using its imports as a cover-up in order to transport drugs into the European Union." The police apparently checked every single pineapple for cocaine packets, smashing the fruit to the ground. Pineapples that contained the drug had from 800 to 7,000 grams each, resulting in about 650 pounds total. Three people in Madrid and four in Barcelona were subsequently arrested.

The Independent notes that hiding drugs in fruit is a new tactic being used by drug traffickers—an especially resourceful one since the fruit helps hide the smell of drugs. It also adds a bizarre danger/surprise element to fruit-market shopping.