An element of the Spanish Guardia Civil looks at the bales of cocaine seized on a vessel on Portugal coast following the operation 'Tuga' in Setubal, Portugal, 31 January 2019. Eleven people were detained and a high amount of cocaine was seized on a vessel in the high sea, following an operation carried out by the Judicial Police, Navy and Air Force. EPA/CARLOS SANTOS The drug was found aboard an “ultra-fast ocean-going rigid inflatable boat”, which smugglers typically use to recover illicit cargoes dropped at sea by large ships arriving from South America, the Guardia di Finanza police said in a statement.
Four people aboard the vessel were arrested - two Spaniards, a Gibraltar resident and an Albanian man living in Italy.
The operation was conducted in cooperation with Spanish and Portuguese authorities, with Italian prosecutors in the northern city of Brescia coordinating investigations.
“The wholesale value of the cocaine is estimated at approximately €78 million. Once delivered to their destination and diluted for retail distribution, the narcotics could have generated total revenues of around €500 million”, the statement said.
($1 = 0.8772 euros)
(Reporting by Alvise Armellini, editing by Giulia Segreti)