Dutch find cocaine hidden among Valentine roses

A week before Valentine's Day, a consignment of cocaine was found hidden among 20,000 roses from Latin America at Amsterdam airport, Dutch authorities said on Wednesday.

The roses, a popular Feb. 14 Valentine's Day gift, arrived last Sunday on a flight from Bogota, Colombia, which stopped over in Puerto Rico, the public prosecutors' office said in a statement. The drug was found in cellophane packets hidden in boxes containing the roses.

Three people in the Netherlands were arrested and police found a total of 9 kg (20 lb) of cocaine in their possession, including the seized shipment, with a street value of about 1.3 million euros.

The Netherlands is a major flower trading hub, home to the world's biggest flower auction house and is the source of 60 percent of the world's flower exports.