Porto Gioia Tauro, maxi drug seizure: a ton of coca | The drug was hidden in bananas

The operation of the Carabinieri was conducted with the support of officials of the Gioia Tauro Customs Agency and the operational competition of Europol officials. "The investigative activity – reads the press release of the carabinieri – is the result, on the one hand, of the results of the international police cooperation ensured by the
components of the Weapon, thanks to the support of the Central Directorate for Anti-Drug Services and Europol. And, on the other hand, a convergent and in-depth risk analysis carried out by the financiers and customs officials on the entire cargo transported by the container ship arrived in the port of Gioia Tauro following which a small number of boxes was selected for which it was recognized a possible risk of contamination ".

The large quantity of drugs was discovered on the basis of a radiogenic scan performed using the sophisticated equipment supplied to the Customs Agency. "The activity, which was promptly communicated to the Dda of Reggio Calabria directed by Giovanni Bombardieri – the press release continues – was propitiated by the collaboration, also international, between the forces in the field in the fight against drug trafficking, as witnessed by the presence of the European Police Agency, which confirmed the centrality of the plain and port of Gioia Tauro as a priority transit node for large cocaine traffic, in line with the results of
previous investigations carried out by the carabinieri on 'ndranghetistic matrixes systematically active in the international traffic of cocaine. The analogous and unambiguous confirmations regarding the operation of the main 'ndrangheta gangs operating in the Piana di Gioia Tauro then lay the results of important anti-drug activities concluded in recent times by the Goa of the Guardia di Finanza, such as the Puerto Liberado operations, Rio de Janeiro , Puerto connection, Vulcano and Balboa ".

Over two tons of cocaine in a year Finally, the role of the preventive control system and risk analysis carried out by the forces present in the port of Gioia Tauro has proved to be fundamental, "which remains strategic – the carabinieri report – in the routes of the drug. System that allowed the Guard of finance and the Customs Agency to seize, in the last year alone, over two and a half tons of cocaine ".