Southern Italy's police seized 2700 kilograms of high-purity cocaine today, hidden in two refrigerated containers carrying a shipment of bananas from Ecuador.
The Italian financial crime unit reported in a statement that the value of the seized drugs at the port of Gioia Tauro in Calabria exceeds 800 million euros (approximately 880 million dollars).
The shipment originated from Guayaquil in Ecuador and had a final destination of Armenia via the Black Sea port of Batumi in Georgia.
The police noted that the drugs were discovered in the two 12-meter containers thanks to specialized scanning equipment and the assistance of a police dog named Guel.
Additionally, the police announced finding another 600 kilograms of cocaine in recent days in fruit containers from Ecuador being shipped through Gioia Tauro. These shipments were bound for other areas in Italy, Croatia, Greece, and Georgia.
Calabria is home to the 'Ndrangheta mafia, which has replaced the Cosa Nostra gang in Sicily as the most powerful mafia organization in Italy and plays a key role in drug trafficking.
