Cocaine Found Floating off Sicily In 2 Tonnes
Cocaine worth more than 400 million euros was discovered floating off Sicily in parcels that were probably dropped by a cargo ship for traffickers to get ashore, Italian police reported on Monday.
Off the eastern coast of Sicily, police detained 70 packages that were knotted together and contained over two tonnes (2,000 kilograms) of cocaine, making it “one of the largest” drug hauls ever made in Italy.
A military surveillance plane detected the shipments, which included about 1,600 bricks of cocaine and had a tracking device, authorities said.
In a statement, it added that they were “likely left at sea by one of the cargo ships that frequently ply that stretch of coastline, to be later recovered and transported to the mainland.”
It claimed that the street value of the cargo was more than 400 million euros ($440 million).
The Cosa Nostra mafia, which was the subject of the Godfather movies, originated in Sicily, but the affluent and powerful ‘Ndrangheta is the country’s most prominent organized crime organization.
The ‘Ndrangheta is based in the Calabria region, which is separated from Sicily by the Strait of Messina. It is actively involved in drug trafficking and is in charge of the majority of the cocaine entering Europe.
