Over 400 million euros worth of cocaine was found floating off Sicily in packages. Twitter/@nexta_tv
Sicily: In what can be called one of the largest drug hauls ever made in Italy, over 400 million euros worth of cocaine was found floating off Sicily in packages. The packages were most likely left by a cargo ship for traffickers to bring ashore, according to Italian police.
As per a report in AFP, the police intercepted 70 packages, which were all tied together and contained around 2,000 kilogrammes of cocaine, off Sicily’s eastern coast. The packages themselves were made of around 1,600 bricks of drugs and even sported a tracking device.
The consignment was spotted by a navy surveillance plane, the police informed, adding in a statement that they were “probably left at sea by one of the cargo ships frequenting that stretch of coastline, to be subsequently recovered and transported to the mainland.”
The statement added that the cargo was worth over 400 million euros.
According to a report in DW, tax and customs authorities called it a “record” seizure and quoted a statement as stating that “peculiar packaging methods and the presence of a luminous device to allow tracking” suggested that the haul was dumped at sea by a cargo ship in order for it to recovered later.
Notably, Sicily is home to the wealthy and powerful ‘Ndrangheta mafia family.
However, this is not the first time that two tonnes of cocaine have been intercepted by authorities on sea. Back in 2021, the UK authorities seized around 2 tonnes of cocaine on a luxury yacht off the coast of southern England.
At that time British authorities were also able to nab six people after discovering the drugs estimated to be worth $221 million. The drugs were intercepted on a Jamaican-flagged yacht sailing from the Caribbean.
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