Czech police said Friday they had seized 840 kilos of cocaine stashed in banana boxes in supermarkets.

They were alerted by supermarket staff in two cities, Jicin and Rychnov nad Kneznou, who had found bars of cocaine in the boxes.

Police said they had searched other places where boxes from the shipment had ended up.

Czech supermarket staff got more than they bargained for in their banana shipments -- bricks of cocaine
Czech supermarket staff got more than they bargained for in their banana shipments -- bricks of cocaine AFP / ERNESTO BENAVIDES

Czech public TV said the boxes had been shipped from Colombia.

"Detectives have so far seized 840 kilogrammes of cocaine in all the places they have searched," police said in a tweet.

"In the final distribution, at a price of 3,000 koruna ($128) per gramme, dealers would have earned over two billion koruna ($85 million) from the haul," they added.

Police said the national drug squad has launched an investigation and would seek international help.