A RM22 MILLION consignment of cocaine mixed in canned coconut milk andpineapple cubes was intercepted in Port Klang despite taking a roundabout sea route to avoid detection.

The drugs were packed in Guyana in the northern coast of South America and destined for Mozambique in southeast Africa, a journey that would take about three weeks.

The liquified cocaine was found diluted inside 387 cans of coconut milk and pineapples cubes mixture.A tip-off from the United States Drug Enforcement Agency, however, put paid to the ruse.

They were in 16 cartons out of the 980 that the ship was carrying.

Bukit Aman Narcotics Criminal Investigation Department Director Datuk Noor Rashid Ibrahim said the syndicate decided to take a longer route to avoid detection. He said the vessel was raided on Nov 12 following information a week earlier that the ship would make a pit stop at Port Klang.

Each of the tin weighs 400gm of which half of its content was cocaine.

Noor Rashid said the liquified drug could be processed into powdered form weighing more than 76kg.

"This new method by the African syndicate in shipping the drugs not in its original form could have given them huge profits," he said.

Investigations are underway to backtrack the ship's other pit stops before reaching Port Klang.

Noor Rashid said this was the first time Malaysian authorities had busted smuggling of drugs through liquid form at the port although two years ago police received a similar tipoff from Iran.