Italian authorities have seized a huge shipment of 5.3 tons of cocaine transported between ships near Sicily, in one of the worst blows to drug trafficking in the Mediterranean in recent times.
The Italian trade police, the Guardia di Finanza, announced that five suspected drug traffickers had been arrested and a drug worth a staggering 850 million euros had been seized by police. According to a police statement, a ship sailing from South America had been under undercover police surveillance since it arrived in the Mediterranean. After the surveillance team noticed that the crew was throwing packages overboard into the water, police arrived and intervened.
A huge shipment of cocaine seized off the coast of Italy // Photo: Reuters
The arrest took place near the Strait of Sicily, the water crossing between the Italian Peninsula and the island of Sicily. Near the point where the packages were thrown, a small fishing boat was waiting, whose crew pulled the packages and intended to sail away.
After the fishing boat was seized, a huge cargo of Sam was found on board and her crew was arrested. Among the crew were two Tunisians, two Italian citizens and one Albanian citizen. The president of the province of Sicily, Renato Skipani, responded to the seizure, calling it a "significant victory over the drug trade in the region."
"Drugs are a disease of our society fueled by unscrupulous people who sow death and crush the hopes and lives of so many families," Skipney said.
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