Workers at a food production plant accidentally uncovered the illegal drug while opening up a shipment of sugar. Authorities in Saxony said it was the largest cocaine bust in the state's history.
In this police handout, hundreds of bricks of cocaine are stacked on top of one another after being found in a shipment of sugar in the eastern state of GermanyImage: LKA Sachsen
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Drug traffickers attempted to smuggle hundreds of kilograms of cocaine in a sugar shipment, authorities in the eastern German state of Saxony announced on Tuesday.
A drug bust of that size is expected to have a "significant impact on the entire narcotics market," said Sonya Penzel, the head of Saxony's state criminal police office.
What did police say?
Authorities recovered 700 kilograms (1,540 pounds) of cocaine in total, describing the bust as "massive."
The cocaine has an estimated street value of over €150 million ($170 million).
"This is the largest cocaine seizure in the state of Saxony to date," police said in a statement.
Trafficking cocaine
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Who made the discovery?
The drugs were uncovered by an unusual source — workers at a food production company located in a rural area between the cities of Dresden and Chemnitz.
The workers were unpacking a recent shipment of sugar when they came across the suspiciously wrapped cocaine bricks.
They then quickly alerted the police, who were then joined by customs officers in Dresden.
Police are now working to uncover who was behind the shipment — and where it was headed.
It is unclear whether the cocaine was intended to be distributed in the state of Saxony, or whether it was a stopover.
Authorities made clear, however, that the company that made the initial discovery is not considered a suspect.
Drug busts are more common in Germany's port cities, where container shipments first land. In Hamburg, authorities uncovered 16 tons of cocaine alone the month of February last year.
rs/wmr (dpa, AFP)
Germany, the original drug lab
Many recreational drugs cooked in hidden labs around the world today were origianlly desigend by German chemists, the military and German firms.
Off to war
The Nazis sent doped-up soldiers to the front in Poland in 1939 and to France the following year. During the invasion of France, a whopping 35 million tablets of the methamphetamine Pervitin were distributed to soldiers, who named the miracle pill "Panzerschokolade" ("tank chocolate"). It wasn't just the Germans, however: the Allies gave their troops drugs, too.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa-Bildarchiv
Alert and fearless
A Japanese chemist created a liquid version of what was to become the German Wehrmacht's miracle pill. The Berlin-based drug firm Temmler refined the drug and took out a patent in 1937. A year later, Pervitin was sold over the counter. It left people alert, fearless, and without need of food or drink. Pervitin is still on the market - illegally - and under a different name: Crystal Meth.
His own best customer?
Historians disagree over whether the Führer himself was addicted to Pervitin. Files kept by Hitler's personal doctor, Theo Morell, show a scribbled "x" in reference to a cocktail of medication he was given on any given day - but it isn't exactly clear what it refers to. We do know, though, that Hitler was on a mix of powerful drugs.
German chemists' inventive talents go back even further than the Nazi era, however. "No cough thanks to heroin," was the ad slogan for a cough medicine produced by the German drug company Bayer in the late 19th century. Heroin was prescribed to patients - adults and children - suffering from epilepsy, asthma, schizophrenia and heart disease. Any side effects? Bayer listed constipation.
Creative Chemists
Felix Hoffmann is perhaps best known for inventing Aspirin. But that's not all. He also developed heroin while experimenting with acetic acid. Hoffmann combined the acid with morphine, an extract from the poppy pod. Heroin was legal in Germany until 1971 when it was finally outlawed.
Cocaine for opthamologists
In 1862, the Darmstadt-based firm Merck started producing large amounts of cocaine as a local anesthetic for ophthalmologists. German chemist, Albert Niemann, had previously isolated an alkaloid he named cocaine from South American coca leaves. Niemann died shortly after discovering cocaine - of lung problems.
Image: Merck Corporate History
Euphoria and vitality
Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist and the "father of psychoanalysis," consumed cocaine for scientific purposes. In his Cocaine Papers study, Freud described the drug as harmless. He observed "euphoria, more vitality and [a] capacity for work." His enthusiasm waned, however, after a friend died of an overdose. At that time doctors prescribed cocaine for headaches and stomach problems.
Image: Hans Casparius/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
MDMA patent
American chemist, Alexander Shulgin, is widely believed to have invented the party drug ecstasy. But in reality, he rediscovered the compound. The German firm Merck had originally developed and filed for a patent for a colorless oil under the name 3,4-Methylendioxymethamphetamine - MDMA - in 1912. Back then, chemists thought the substance had no commercial value.
Image: picture-alliance/epa/Barbara Walton
The past casts a long shadow
These German chemists' inventions are still having an impact today. According to estimates by the United Nations about 190,000 people died worldwide in 2013 because of illegal drug consumption. However, alcohol, a legal drug, is responsible for far more deaths. The WHO says 5.9 percent of all deaths in 2012 were due to alcohol consumption - that's 3.3 million people.
