Authorities in Italy seized a “record” two tons of cocaine in waters near Sicily, according to a Monday tweet from the Guardia di Finanza.
According to the law enforcement agency, the drugs were worth over $400 million.
Around 70 waterproofed packages of cocaine “were found held together by fishing nets and equipped with a tracking device,” the BBC reported. Overall, there were about 1,600 bricks of drugs.
“Officers believe the drugs were dumped at sea by a cargo ship in order to be recovered later,” said the outlet. A navy plane first spotted the cocaine.
Steve Rolles of the Transform Drug Policy Foundation in the U.K. joined KRLD’s “Something Offbeat” podcast recently to discuss mysterious drug sightings on the high seas. In February, nearly two tons of cocaine washed up on a French beach, according to reports.
Rolles said the phenomenon is “surprisingly common, actually – I mean, the total amount... of the drug produced, going by the UN Office on Drugs and Crimes estimates, is over 1,000 tons a year, probably around 1,200 tons a year.”
He explained that when people trafficking cocaine believe they are being intercepted by authorities, they’ll ditch the drugs. When its being transported on the ocean, this means it will be left floating in the surf.
“Literally tons of cocaine often ends up in small, small bulk packages, it is just chucked overboard,” Rolles said.
Officers can be seen removing cocaine from the water near the Sicilian Coast here:
In Italy, the cocaine was found around the same time as Sea Day, which is celebrated April 11 and has an aim of “promoting, especially towards students, the respect and protection of the marine environment and the development of the culture of the sea, understood as a resource of great cultural, scientific, recreational and economic value.”
2 tons of cocaine found floating near Italy
Authorities in Italy seized a “record” two tons of cocaine in waters near Sicily, according to a Monday tweet from the Guardia di Finanza. KRLD recently talked with an expert about cocaine abandoned in the ocean.
www.audacy.com
