Record 13.4 tonnes of cocaine seized last year - report

(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 18 - A record 13.4 tonnes of cocaine were seized in Italy last year, according to the annual report from the Central Directorate for Antidrug Services (DCSA) released Friday.
    The cocaine haul was 62.2% higher than 2019, when the rise on 2018 was even higher, 127.8%, the report said.
    The DCSA said they would try to establish if last year's rise could have been influenced by the "stop and go" effect of COVID lockdowns.
    Some 78.7% of seizures were made at borders, 98.1% of them at maritime borders.
    The bulk of the big catches were in January and February, when 3,330 kg was seized in the port of Livorno, 338 kg in La Spezia and 1,128 kg at Gioia Tauro, the report said.
    This was before the COVID lockdown.
    Seizures also picked up again in October-December, including 2,862 kg in four separate operations, three at Gioa Tauro where the Calabrian 'Nrrangheta mafia operates and one at Ancona.
    'Ndrangheta, which controls the European cocaine trade and has its major import point at Gioia Tauro, is Italy's richest and most powerful mafia having supplanted Cosa Nostra of Sicily.
    (ANSA).