MONTEVIDEO, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Uruguayan authorities have discovered the largest shipment of drugs in the country's history, the National Customs Directorate announced on Friday.
The director of the national customs, Jorge Borgiani, said at a press conference that at least 4,417 kilograms of cocaine was seized in the port of Montevideo.
He said that the drugs were disguised as soy flour and hidden across three shipping containers.
"There is still one more container left to open," Borgiani said. The amount of cocaine counted from the first two containers alone is believed to be worth around 1 billion U.S. dollars.
The drugs discovery and seizure operation, jointly carried out by the National Customs Directorate and the National Naval Prefecture, occurred on Thursday afternoon.
The shipment containing the drugs was destined for the port city of Lome, the capital of Togo.
The Uruguayan Navy also stated that this operation will be "the biggest blow to drug trafficking in the history of the country."
In November in the port of Montevideo, authorities discovered a container with more than three tons of cocaine, also destined for Africa.
