Italian police scooped up over two tons of cocaine that they found just loosely bobbing around in the ocean. The authorities suspect it was worth about 400 million euros (almost $450M), the Associated Press reports.
The massive haul was discovered in the sea off eastern Sicily on Monday, with the product wrapped in protective plastic.
The packages of cocaine were strung together with netting, and were tightly wrapped in just enough plastic to keep it from getting wet without weighing the product down and possibly sinking it, police said in a statement.
Investigators theorized that a cargo ship likely left the product in the ocean intentionally, and planned for another ship to scoop it up and bring the product to land. After obtaining the 1,600 packets of cocaine, police aircraft flew over the area of sea to see if they could spot any other drug bundles that could have been separated from the initial packages.
The massive haul comes a few months after Italian authorities arrested the Italian Mafia’s “last godfather,” Matteo Messina Denaro. Authorities detained the individual in January after searching for him for over 30 years. Locals reportedly cheered the capture of the 60-year-old, who once bragged about being able to fill a cemetery with all of his victims.
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