German police incinerate cocaine worth over $300 million

Police in Germany’s Bavaria region say they have destroyed some 1.5 metric tons (1.65 U.S. tons) of cocaine with a street value of about 270 million euros ($304 million) — their biggest such operation yet. Bavaria’s criminal police office said the drugs were incinerated Tuesday under heavy security at a facility at an undisclosed location in the south of the state. The incineration, which police dubbed “Operation Snow Melt,” destroyed cocaine seized in various investigations over recent years. In one of those cases, nearly 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of the drugs were found by employees at 10 Bavarian supermarkets in September 2017. They had been hidden in crates of bananas.