Banacol is the fourth largest company exporting bananas in Colombia. The company is also a regular contributor to political campaigns of both the Democratic Centre and Colombia Liberal party. This includes figures such as former President of Colombia Álvaro Uribe, Mario Castańo (who was embroiled in a corruption scandal last year) and that of current Mayor of Medellin, Federico Gutiiérrez.
Why am I talking about bananas on a mafia blog? Because on at least two proven occasions, investigators have discovered large shipments of cocaine hidden amongst crates of bananas shipped by Banacol to Italy, arriving at Gioia Tauro, the massive port in Calabria notoriously known as a transit centre for drugs imported by ‘ndrangheta clans.
While there is no direct evidence that the fruit exporting company itself is responsible for the shipments (theoretically the cocaine could have been hidden in their product by a third party), Italian authorities have brought the issue to the Colombian Prosecutor’s Office. That they point to the lack of action taken by the Colombians is concerning, especially when coupled with the fact that Banacol is also under fire for essentially stealing land owned by people displaced by armed conflict to build private roads for their factories. Banacol is owned by a Greenland Investments SAS, a Spanish and Belize conglomerate, which only further complicates the matter.
In any case, more as it comes.
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