Syrian gang caught trying to smuggle 20-tonnes of cannabis worth £150million into Europe

A gang comprising ten Syrians have been arrested by the Italian Police – the gang was trying to smuggle 20.5 tonnes of cannabis worth an estimated £150million into Europe. The contraband was concealed in a specially converted cargo vessel below massive slabs of granite.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 17 October 2015.

The vessel was a Cook Island-flagged merchant vessel Jupiter and it was boarded in the Mediterranean Sea by Italian Finance Police who are responsible for border security. The vessel was then taken under guard to the Port of Cagliari on Sardinia.
Europol has confirmed that the major joint operation was launched after receiving a tip-off that the freighter had drugs hidden below the legitimate cargo. The total was 821 packets of cannabis. It was hidden in the forward ballast tank of the Jupiter and came to light following an intensive 15-day search. The cargo vessel is 97 metres long and 16 metres wide and it had visited Vigo in northern Spain, after crossing the Atlantic before it headed south into the Mediterranean.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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