Another large drug seizure at the port of Gioia Tauro: 175 kilograms of pure cocaine inside containers carrying octopus and shrimp.
The soldiers of the Guardia di Finanza Group of Gioia Tauro and the Customs personnel have selected three suspicious containers, two of which came from Latin America and headed towards Italy and some Eastern European countries. The declared loads contained frozen fish products – in particular octopus and shrimp – but something did not convince the investigators.
The containers were then subjected to an in-depth x-ray scan with the sophisticated scanner equipment of the Customs Agency, and subsequently inspected with the help of the anti-drug canine units of the Guardia di Finanza.
The intuition turned out to be correct: hidden among the loads of fish, the agents found 154 blocks of cocaine, with a total weight of more than 175 kilos. The astonishing substance, of very high purity, was cleverly hidden to evade the rigorous customs and police controls, now systematic in the Gioia port area.
According to initial estimates, the seized drugs would have earned the criminal organizations around 30 million euros once placed on the market.
The documents of the operation were sent to the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Palmi, under the direction of the prosecutor Emanuele Crescenti and the magistrate on duty, for the validation and continuation of the investigations.