The Provincial Command of the Financial Police of Reggio Calabria, with the collaboration of the Office of the Customs and Monopolies Agency of Gioia Tauro, seized, at the port of Gioia, a further batch of pure cocaine of 248 kilograms.
The operation is part of a more complex and detailed intensification of inspections and controls arranged, for this last part of the year, across the entire port area, with the aim of identifying, among the thousands of containers moved daily, those used by criminal groups to import the narcotic. In particular, the soldiers of the Gioia Tauro Group and the staff of the Customs Agency, as part of the checks aimed at intercepting any loads of narcotic substances managed by organized crime, selected and subjected to careful inspections two containers, coming from overseas countries, which transported, respectively, used vehicles and bags of sesame. Specifically, the blocked containers were first subjected to x-ray scanning, using the scanner equipment supplied to the Customs and Monopolies Agency, and subsequently to a thorough inspection with the precious help of the canine units of the Gioia Tauro Financial Police Group. Following the inspections, 217 blocks of cocaine were discovered and seized, for a total weight of 248 kilograms, which had been cleverly hidden inside the containers in an attempt to overcome the customs and police control network set up in the port area of Gioia Tauro.