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Record seizure of cocaine in the port of Gioia Tauro. Reggio Calabria provincial command financiers and customs officials found two tons and 734 kilograms of pure cocaine in two containers that came from Guayaquil, Ecuador, bound for Armenia via the port of Batumi, Georgia. It was in refrigerated containers over 12 meters long and hidden in a load of fruit consisting of 78 tons of bananas.
The operation to seize nearly three tons of cocaine to fight international drug trafficking was carried out under the coordination and direction of the Reggio Calabria District Anti-Mafia Directorate. The cocaine was identified by drug sniffer dog Joel, after long and complex searches using sophisticated scanners operated by Customs and the Guardia di Finanza canine departments.
“The confiscated narcotics, of the highest purity and in perfect condition, would have brought the smugglers an income of over 800 million euros.” transport and subsequent destruction in use. The complex and detailed risk analysis activities were carried out in the days before the deployment.” The factual investigations into the thousands of containers from South America enabled the financial police and customs to identify additional loads of cocaine totaling 600 kilograms.
In these cases, the drug was hidden in six containers, always in different ways: between the goods, in false floors or again in the outer cavities of the boxes. All containers transported exotic fruits from Ecuador and should have reached various ports both in Italy and abroad via Gioia Tauro, in particular again in Croatia, Greece and Georgia. The methods used to conceal the drug often turn out to be different and are constantly evolving, forcing investigators to perfect working methods from time to time.” A total of about 37 tons of cocaine were lying around in the port of Gioia Tauro from January 2021 to date.