Financial Police, Guardia di Finanza in Italy has discovered a huge consignment of cocaine floating off the eastern coast of the island of Sicily.
The Italian police released a statement on Monday saying authorities seized nearly two tons of the drugs during routine surveillance.
The drugs were spotted floating in the Mediterranean on Sunday.
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It was learnt that the substances were carefully sealed in 70 waterproof floating packages, which were connected and included a signaling light device.
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The statement read:
“The identification and subsequent seizure of this quantity of drugs, one of the largest ever carried out in the national territory, likely prevented the drug from being recovered by criminals for subsequent illegal sale in the national territory, which would have yielded very high earnings.”
Guardia di Finanza suspected that the floating packages were left by a passing cargo ship to be retrieved and brought ashore by traffickers.
The financial police said it further dispatched boats from the Sicilian municipality of Catania and provided air cover from multiple units to ensure the safety of the officers involved in the operation.
According to them, the surveillance tour was still on around the area to seize any more floating packets.
