THE HAGUE (AFP) - Cocaine worth some six million euros (nine million dollars) was found hidden in a consignment of melons from central America, Dutch police said Monday.

They were alerted when suspect packets turned up in the shipment delivered to a wholesale market at Venlo, on the border between the Netherlands and Germany.

Some 150 kilos (330 pounds) of pure cocaine were concealed in boxes among the melons, which had been brought by truck from the Belgian port of Antwerp on Thursday, police said.