Italian authorities seized roughly 1,700 pounds of cocaine hidden among pallets of bananas at the port of Vado Ligure, Italy’s Guardia di Finanza said Tuesday.
The drugs were divided into 650 packages and were “skillfully concealed” inside a refrigerated shipping container that arrived from one of Ecuador’s main ports, the Guardia di Finanza said. A field test during the inspection indicated the substance was “extremely pure cocaine,” the agency said.
The seizure could have generated an estimated 250 million euros, or nearly $290 million, if it had reached the street market, the Guardia di Finanza said, calling the bust one of the largest anti-drug operations carried out at the port in recent years.
The agency said the seizure followed an extensive analysis of commercial shipping routes linking South America with Vado Ligure, an important gateway for goods entering Europe — and an “attractive” target for international drug traffickers. “The operation forms part of an ongoing and targeted effort to combat the international trafficking of narcotics, including efforts to protect the most vulnerable segments of the population, who are often exposed to the harmful effects of this type of criminal activity,” the Guardia di Finanza said.
The seizure comes weeks after U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers discovered more than 1,100 pounds of cocaine hidden in a commercial tractor-trailer carrying cabbage at the Pharr Port of Entry in Texas. CBP said a canine inspection and nonintrusive imaging scan alerted officers to the concealed load; a physical search uncovered 477 packages containing 1,173 pounds of cocaine with an estimated street value of nearly $10.8 million.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
