Coffee with a kick: Police seize 500kg of cocaine in Nespresso bean delivery

Workers at the coffee plant alerted police to a mysterious “white substance” found in sacks of coffee beans delivered to a Swiss Nespresso plant.

Police seized more than 500kg of pure cocaine in a coffee bean delivery to a Nespresso coffee pod factory in Switzerland. Picture: AFP/News Regional Media

A Nespresso plant has been the scene of a huge drug bust, with police seizing more than 500kg of cocaine that was smuggled in a shipment of coffee beans.

Workers at Nestle’s capsule-making factory in Romont, in the western canton of Fribourg, Switzerland, alerted authorities to “an undetermined white substance” found in the sacks of coffee beans delivered from Brazil on Monday night.

Police analysis determined the substance was cocaine, and commenced a search of the five shipping containers that had just arrived by train.

In a statement on Thursday, Fribourg police said the haul was determined to be more than 80 per cent pure with an estimated street value of more than 50 million Swiss francs ($A71 million).

One of the five containers of a shipment of coffee beans delivered to a Nespresso plant in which more than 500kg of cocaine was found in Romont, Switzerland: Picture: Police CU FU/AFP

“It appears that all of the drugs were destined for the European market,” the statement read.

Their operation reportedly involved a large contingent of customs officers who secured the substance to protect from cross-contamination – which, Nespresso said in an emailed statement, was successful.

“The substance in question did not come into contact with any of our products or production equipment used to make our products,” Nespresso’s statement said, Reuters reports.

“As a police investigation is underway, we cannot share more details. We want to reassure consumers that all our products are safe to consume.”