LIMA (Reuters) -&nbsp;Peruvian authorities said Monday they&nbsp;seized 2.3 tonnes of&nbsp;cocaine&nbsp;disguised as ceramic tiles destined for&nbsp;Turkey&nbsp;via a growing maritime route for illicit drugs.
The drug bust happened Friday at a warehouse at&nbsp;Peru's biggest port, El Callao, just outside the capital Lima,&nbsp;police&nbsp;said.
"This is the first incident that we know of (in which the cargo was in)&nbsp;Peruvian ports and its final destination was&nbsp;Turkey. Usually we are aware of ports in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and France," said El Callao's&nbsp;police&nbsp;chief, Colonel Luis Angel Bolanos.
At a press conference Monday,&nbsp;police&nbsp;displayed the&nbsp;cocaine, which had been fixed to rubber sheets to appear as hundreds of ceramic tiles packed in wooden boxes inside a shipping container.
Bolanos said the&nbsp;seized&nbsp;cocaine&nbsp;was valued at "at least $20&nbsp;million."
The Andean nation&nbsp;seized a record 86.4 tonnes of drugs and illicit substances last year, 28 tonnes of which were&nbsp;cocaine&nbsp;hydrochloride,&nbsp;police&nbsp;data shows.
Peru&nbsp;and nearby Colombia are among the top global producers of&nbsp;cocaine&nbsp;and of the coca leaf it is made of, according to the United Nations.
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(Reporting by Anthony Marina and Alfredo Galarza; Writing by Brendan O'Boyle; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)

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Peru police seize $20 million of cocaine headed for Turkey