Police in southern Italy have seized 2,700kg of cocaine hidden in two refrigerated containers of bananas shipped from Ecuador.
The haul, found in the Calabrian port of Gioia Tauro, would have been worth more than €800m (R16.6bn), Italy's Guardia di Finanza police said.
The shipment came from Guayaquil in Ecuador and its final destination was Armenia.
The drugs were discovered in the 12m containers thanks to specialised scanners, helped by a sniffer dog named Joel, the police added.
In the past few days they found a further 600kg of cocaine in fruit containers also from Ecuador. The consignments were destined for Italy, Croatia, Greece and Georgia, they added.
Calabria is home to the “Ndrangheta”, which has supplanted Sicily's Cosa Nostra as Italy's most powerful mafia organisation and plays a central role in the drugs trade.
Reuters
Italian police find R16bn in cocaine stashed in banana crates
Image: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Police in southern Italy have seized 2,700kg of cocaine hidden in two refrigerated containers of bananas shipped from Ecuador.
The haul, found in the Calabrian port of Gioia Tauro, would have been worth more than €800m (R16.6bn), Italy's Guardia di Finanza police said.
The shipment came from Guayaquil in Ecuador and its final destination was Armenia.
The drugs were discovered in the 12m containers thanks to specialised scanners, helped by a sniffer dog named Joel, the police added.
In the past few days they found a further 600kg of cocaine in fruit containers also from Ecuador. The consignments were destined for Italy, Croatia, Greece and Georgia, they added.
Calabria is home to the “Ndrangheta”, which has supplanted Sicily's Cosa Nostra as Italy's most powerful mafia organisation and plays a central role in the drugs trade.
Reuters
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