Italian Police Seizes $946 Million Cocaine Shipment

Italian police announced on Friday that they have discovered and seized 5.3 tons of cocaine being transferred between ships off the southern coast of Sicily. According to Reuters, the police stated that the unprecedented value of this shipment is estimated at around 850 million euros (approximately $946 million), and five individuals have been arrested. The Italian police had been monitoring a ship that had arrived from South America, and after a reconnaissance aircraft noticed packages being thrown from the ship's deck into the waters of the Strait of Sicily to be collected by a waiting fishing vessel, they intervened. Officers stopped the fishing vessel and found large quantities of drugs in a hidden compartment inside the ship. Two Tunisian citizens, one Italian, one Albanian, and one French national were arrested. Renato Schifani, the president of the Sicily region in Italy, praised the operation as a blow against drug trafficking. Three months ago, in April, Italian police also discovered nearly two tons of cocaine in the eastern sea of Sicily, which they believe was abandoned by a cargo ship for collection. Additionally, it was noted that the Assad regime and the Islamic Republic's proxies continue to distribute drugs.