Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

Italian authorities seize ‘record’ cocaine drugs haul in Mediterranean

Italian authorities seize ‘record’ cocaine drugs haul in Mediterranean

Italian authorities found almost two tons of cocaine floating at sea off the island of Sicily in what the Guardia di Finanza — the country’s tax and customs police — called a “record” seizure on Monday.
The drugs were stored in some 70 waterproof packages which can be seen floating in the sea in pictures shared by authorities.

Every package was carefully sealed and kept together by fishing nets, and also containing a luminous device which authorities said allowed the illegal parcels to be tracked.

The packages were first spotted by authorities doing routine checks. Italian police said that they were likely dropped by a cargo ship, and intended to be recovered later and brought to land.

The two tons of cocaine contained in the packages, bundled in more than 1,600 individual packs, is worth more than €400 million, authorities say.

The operation is one of Italy’s largest seizures of narcotics in almost 30 years. In 2019, Italian police found sixty bags of cocaine in a container in Genoa that had come from Colombia by boat and that was headed to Barcelona.

The container was transporting more than two tons of cocaine which authorities said belonged to various organizations linked to the “Gulf Clan”, a Colombian drug cartel.

It’s not yet clear where the recent packages seized off eastern Sicily came from, or where they would eventually be delivered.

The number of cocaine seizures in Italy has been growing rapidly since 2020, according to the latest data shared by the country’s authorities.

While in 2020 Italy considered a record to have seized 13.4 tons of cocaine, this same record got broken twice in the following years. In 2022, Italian police seized 28.1 tons of cocaine, a surge from 2021, when the country seized 20.07 tons of cocaine.

A surge in cocaine seizures in Italy is consistent with a recent report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) stating that cocaine production was at its highest level on record.

According to the UN’s Global Report on Cocaine 2023, South American drug cartels have taken advantage of the COVID pandemic for producing record amounts of cocaine to smuggle around the world.

The agency said that the use of fishing and merchant vessels, as well as containers on container ships, to smuggle cocaine into Europe is on the rise.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Budapest Post
Close
0:00
0:00
Climate cultists thought they had sabotaged another beautiful event — then the cameraman had his revenge.
Nvidia CEO Huang says firms, individuals without AI expertise will be left behind
WPP Revolutionizes Advertising with NVIDIA's AI Powerhouse
Two US Employees Fired For Chasing Robbers Out Of Store As They Broke ''Company Policy''
Pfizer, the EU, and disappearing ink - Smoke, Mirrors, and the Billion-Dose Pfizer Vaccine Deal: EU's 'Open Secret
Actor Tom Hanks told Harvard University graduates to be superheroes in their defense of truth and American ideals, and to resist those who twist the truth for their own gain
A provocative study suggests: Left-Wing Extremism and its Unsettling Connection to Psychopathy and Narcissism
France Arrests 10 on Suspicion of Failing to Respond in Time to Migrant Drowning
Neuralink Receives FDA Approval for First-in-Human Clinical Study
Is Saudi Arabia the holiest place in the world? Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions from "The Mount Sinai Stand" Discovered in Saudi Arabia
Ukrainian Intelligence Official Admits to Assassination Attempts on Putin
WATCH THIS: democracy in Russia is so bad!
Ed Davey: It is possible for a woman to have a penis
Bernard Arnault Loses $11.2 Billion in One Day as Investors Fear Slowdown in US Growth Will Reduce Demand for Luxury Products
Russian’s Wagner Group leader: “I am not a chef, I am a butcher. Russia is in danger of a revolution like in 1917.”
TikTok Sues Montana Over Law Banning the App
Ron DeSantis Jumps Into 2024 Presidential Race, Setting Up Showdown With Trump
Steve Jobs introducing Apple's iPhone, exactly 16 years ago.
China overtakes Japan as world's top car exporter
Elon Musk's SpaceX and Italy's Unipol join forces to help Italians hit by flooding
Talks between US House Republicans and President Biden's Democratic administration on raising the federal government's $31.4tn debt ceiling have paused
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad received a warm welcome at an Arab summit in Jeddah
Biden Administration Eyeing High-Profile Visits to China: The Biden Administration is heating things up by looking into setting up a series of top-level visits to Beijing by top officials in the coming months
New evidence in special counsel probe may undercut Trump’s claim documents he took were automatically declassified
A French court of appeals confirmed former President Nicolas Sarkozy's three-year jail term for corruption and influence peddling
Debt Ceiling Crises Have Unleashed Political Chaos
Weibao Wang, a former software engineer at Apple, was charged with stealing trade secrets related to autonomous systems, including self-driving cars
Mobile phone giant Vodafone to cut 11,000 jobs globally over three years as new boss says its performance not good enough
Elon Musk compares George Soros to Magneto, the supervillain from the Marvel Comics series.
Warren Buffett Sells TSMC Shares Over Concerns About Taiwan's Stability
New Study Finds That Secondary Bacterial Pneumonia Is a Major Cause of Death in COVID-19 Patients Who Require Ventilator Assistance
Vienna: Passenger Plays Hitler Speeches on Train, Causes Panic
The official tapes of Trump's deposition in the E. Jean Carroll battery (rape) and defamation case have been released.
King Charles III being crowned.
Newly released video of Donald Trump’s rape trial deposition:
Video: Ukraine MP Punches Russian Representative At Global Meet
El Paso mayor has declared a state of emergency
Russia accused Ukraine of attacking the Kremlin with drones in an attempt to kill Putin
Ahead of King Charles’ coronation, British guards rehearse in the middle of the night in London
Dutch court orders man who fathered 550 kids to stop donating sperm
Kim Kardashian Lookalike Christina Ashten Dies Of Cardiac Arrest, Hours After Plastic Surgery
Samsung has banned employees from using generative AI services such as ChatGPT
'Godfather Of AI' Geoffrey Hinton Quits Google To Warn Of The Tech's Dangers
A Real woman
Vermont Man Charged with Stalking After Secretly Tracking Woman with Apple AirTag
Elon Musk Statements About Tesla Autopilot Could Be 'Deepfakes,' Lawyers Claim. Judge Evette Pennypacker Does Not Understand How Far and Advanced This Technology Became
Ukraine More Prepared for Counterattack as Reinforcements Arrive
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni Discuss Migration, Defence, and Ukraine
Tucker Carlson is back, soon!
AT&T's Successful Test of Satellite-Based Phone Call Raises Possibility of Widespread Coverage
×