Italian police find 20 tonnes of hash worth US$230 million in cargo ship
Time：2015-10-22
Browse：67
Acting on a tip, finance police, who help oversee border security-boarded the ship at sea and diverted it to Cagliari in Sardinia, where they spent more than 18 days searching before finally finding the drugs, according to a statement.
During the search, police used cranes to move enormous blocks of granite carried by the Cook Islands-flagged ship before finding the drugs and arresting its captain and nine-man Syrian crew.
They eventually found 821 packages of hashish weighing a total of 20.5 tonnes in a ballast tank in the bow of the ship. The ship`s captain and nine crew members, all Syrian, were arrested, the statement said.
The ship`s last port of call was Vigo in Spain, according to Reuters. Italian police were aided by the Guardia Civil in Spain and Europol, as well as French and Portuguese authorities, the statement said.