Paraguayan authorities have seized more than 2.3 tonnes of cocaine.
The haul is the landlocked South American country's biggest ever of the drug, with estimates of the seizure's worth at $US600 million ($A854 million), local media reported on Tuesday.
The cocaine was hidden inside a coal container in the port of Villeta, about 30 kilometres from the capital Asuncion, newspaper Ultima Hora quoted prosecutors as saying.
It was thought possible the drug had been flown in from neighbouring Bolivia.
The coal container was destined for Israel, officials said.
Police have detained a former head of Paraguay's public television network.
His lawyer says he only acted as an intermediary in a coal deal, according to daily La Nacion.
Australian Associated Press