Italian authorities report the seizure of 650 kg of cocaine in the northwestern port of Livorno earlier this month, more than double the entire amount seized there last year, originating from Central America.
The street value of the seized cocaine, discovered on January 15 stuffed into large duffle bags, is 130 million euros (US$148 million dollars),
The drugs were in a container of coffee beans that left Honduras and transferred a cargo ship in Costa Rica before crossing the Atlantic, destined to a Madrid-based company in the port of Barcelona.
Though Italian police report no arrest, they speculate the drugs were imported by one of the large cocaine importers in Europe, southern Italy’s ‘Ndrangheta organized crime group.