Italian finance police intercepted a fishing boat carrying 15 tonnes (15,000 kg) of hashish on Friday, about 100 miles off the southwest coast of Sardinia.
Authorities said they couldn't salvage all of the 370 containers of hashish they discovered during their on-board inspection, because the 25-metre fishing boat began to sink shortly after finance police blocked the ship at sea.
Nine Egyptian citizens were arrested in the operation.
The fishing boat was spotted by a finance police helicopter in the area, which alerted ships with the European Union border security agency Frontex's migrant operation Triton.
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