Norway football star Erling Haaland has become a global sensation, with his face plastered across billboards, trading cards and television screens after scoring seven goals in four World Cup matches in July.
Now, police in Ecuador have found his image in a far more unexpected place: printed on green rectangular packages that were part of a 469-kilogram (1,034-pound) cocaine shipment seized from a truck near the Colombian border.
Police said the truck driver was arrested after the seizure Wednesday but offered no explanation for why stickers featuring the golden-haired Norwegian striker were plastered across the packages.
The use of Haaland’s image, however, appears to fit a broader practice among drug traffickers. Criminal groups often mark cocaine shipments with the names or images of famous athletes, celebrities and other public figures to identify the network behind the shipment or indicate its intended recipient.
A news release said anti-narcotics agents were conducting an operation following an anonymous tip received early Tuesday on the Pan-American Highway when they noticed a suspicious truck. After searching it, they found 370 packages hidden in a false bottom.
