Police in Italy have seized around 150kg (330lbs) of cocaine hidden nine metres (30ft) underwater in a ship’s hull.
The haul was worth around €5m (£4.3m) wholesale but could have had a street value of about €25m (£21.5m) when divided into 310,000 packets, investigators said.
Officers from the Italian State Police and Finance Police boarded the cargo vessel, registered in the Marshall Islands, after it docked in Ravenna, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea in northern Italy, last week.
The cargo ship was docked in Ravenna. Pic: Guardia di Finanza/Polizia di Stato
Specialist divers searched under the ship in difficult sea conditions for several hours before they found 139 blocks of pure cocaine.
Video released by investigators showed the divers finding large silver-coloured packages underwater, lifting them on to a police boat and opening them with knives.
Specialist police divers retrieved the stash. Pic: Guardia di Finanza/Polizia di Stato
Some of the bricks had images on them, including a bicycle.
The drugs were wrapped in plastic to protect them from water damage.
Officers haul the drugs aboard a boat. Pic: Guardia di Finanza/Polizia di Stato
The ship, carrying fertiliser, had set sail from Santos in Brazil at the end of February, heading for northern Europe before arriving in the Italian city late last Tuesday night, prosecutors said.
Divers from the Rimini della Finanza air-naval operations department searched the submerged part of the hull and found several casings hidden inside the pipes approximately nine meters below the surface.
Officers open packets. Pic: Guardia di Finanza/Polizia di Stato
Believing they were not essential, they pulled them out and found the drugs.
