Global Courant 2023-04-17 17:23:35
ROME (AP) – Italian police scooped up two tons of cocaine wrapped in protective plastic and floating in the sea off eastern Sicily, authorities said Monday.
The financial police squad estimated that the recent “catch” would have raised about 400 million euros (nearly $450 million) in street sales.
The packages of cocaine were strung together with nets, police said in a statement. There was just enough plastic wrap to keep the cocaine from getting wet without weighing it down and potentially sinking it.
Investigators hypothesized that a freighter had left it in the sea as part of a plan to bring another ship along and eventually bring it ashore. Police planes flew over the sea area as a precaution to spot any other cocaine bundles that may have come loose from the net.
In all, police scooped up more than 1,600 packages of cocaine in 70 bobbing bundles, the statement said.
