May 16, 2023 - 13:21 AMT
Italy seizes 2.7 tons of pure cocaine en route from Ecuador to Armenia

Italy’s finance police and customs officers said Tuesday, May 16 that they have seized over 2.7 tons of pure cocaine in the Calabrian port of Gioia Tauro, ASNA reports.

The drugs were hidden in two refrigerated containers amid 78 tons of bananas.

They were on a ship that came from Ecuador, and the load was reportedly headed to Armenia via the Georgian port of Batumi.

Calabria is the home region of the 'Ndrangheta mafia. It is widely considered to have become Italy's most powerful organized-crime syndicate thanks to its control over much of the cocaine that arrives in Europe and its reach has stretched outside its southern Italian base and gone beyond the country's borders.