Around 100kg (220lbs) of cocaine were uncovered in a shipment of bananas from Colombia that arrived in Spain last week.

Spanish wholesale food administrator Mercabarna alerted officials of the finding on Thursday after the shipment arrived to Barcelona from the port of Tarragona, EFE reported.

Mercabarna reportedly received the shipment and tipped off Catalan officials, leading to the discovery of 85 packages of the drug.

Officials will now try to trace back the fruit to its point of origin. Some boxes from the shipment, however, had already been sold and sent out to market before police intervention, AFP reported.

Unit chief for the Central Narcotics Brigade, José Antonio Rodríguez, explained that banana shipments are a known means of drug trafficking.

"Shipping containers are one of the most frequent means now because it has the benefit of being hidden by commercial traffic. Ports have a lot of movement and perishable products have to move quickly," he said in AFP.

"The problem is that in a container, you can fit 24,000 kilos of goods and maybe 200 to 300 kilos of fake bananas. So finding them, if you aren't alerted, is not easy."

Spain is the main point of entry into Europe for cocaine from Latin America, according to the news agency. Between 2001-2010, Spain was reportedly responsible for 30-40% of cocaine confiscated in Europe.

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