Police in southern Italy announced on Tuesday that they had seized 2,700 kilograms of high-purity cocaine hidden in two refrigerated containers containing a shipment of bananas from Ecuador.
Italian financial police “Guardia di Fianza” seized nearly 2,700 kilograms (about 3 tons) of cocaine hidden in two refrigerated containers, under 70 tons of bananas, shipped by sea from Ecuador.
The police said in a statement that the drugs seized in the port of Joya Tauro were supposed to bring in 800 million euros ($900 million) for smugglers.
The shipment came from Guayaquil in Ecuador and its final destination was Armenia via the Black Sea port of Batumi in Georgia.
The police added that the drugs were discovered in the two containers, which are 12 meters long, thanks to specialized scanners and with the help of a sniffer dog.
The ‘Ndrangheta mafia, which replaced the Cosa Nostra gang in Sicily as the most powerful mafia organization in Italy, is stationed in Calabria and plays a pivotal role in the drug trade, and is the main suspect in this process.
