Cocaine haul worth 24 mn euros seized at Calabrian port

Rome, Sep 15 (IANS/AKI) Italian police impounded over 119 kg of pure cocaine hidden in a container ship that docked at the port of Gioia Tauro in the southern Calabria region.

The 24 million euro (above $27 million) cocaine haul was hidden inside three large bags concealed within a coffee shipment from Brazil that was headed for the northeast Italian port of Trieste.

Tax police and customs officials said they uncovered the cocaine after cross-checking shipping documents.

Italian police in June arrested 34 Calabrian mafia suspects who allegedly trafficked cocaine from Colombia.

Four suspects were also arrested in Spain and a top member of Colombia's Marxist FARC was implicated by the probe, according to investigators.

American and Spanish investigators cooperated in the probe, as did judicial authorities in Brazil, Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Spain and Montenegro, where the alleged drug smuggling network operated.