Routine flight reveals $650 million haul floating in ocean

A routine surveillance flight ended with over two tonnes of cocaine being pulled from the ocean, believed to be worth about $650 million.

The staggering volume was stored in 70 waterproof packages, carefully sealed and connected to one another by nets with a signalling device attached, as the illegal drugs bobbed along the eastern coast of Sicily on Sunday.

Italian police confirmed it was a record seizure, with authorities believing the packages were dumped in the water by a passing cargo ship to later be retrieved and brought to shore.

Italian police investigate record-breaking discovery

In a statement released on Monday, local authorities shared they were grateful for the interception, believing the offenders involved would have made a large profit from importing and distributing the illegal substance.

"The identification and subsequent seizure of this quantity of drugs, one of the largest ever carried out in the national territory, likely prevented the drug from being recovered by criminals," the statement read, before adding, "which would have yielded very high earnings".

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This seizure alone contends with the 20 tonnes of cocaine Italian police intercepted over the course of 2021, highlighting the sheer quantity and importance of this find.

Since 2016, a "slow but steady" increase in the number of Italians entering treatment for their cocaine use has been observed, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report.

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