VALLETTA – Customs officials in Malta said yesterday they had made the country's largest ever drugs bust, seizing 612kg of cocaine with an estimated street value of €69 million euros (RM338.94 million).
The drugs were stored in 510 packets concealed within pallets carrying cooking oil. The cargo originated in Ecuador and transited through Colombia before being intercepted in Malta on its way to Libya.
It was “the largest drug haul ever made in Malta's history,” the customs department said in a statement.
“Discrepancies in the scanning image of the cargo lead the officials to carry out a physical inspection on the container's load,” the department said.
“This haul was a record breaker due to the high value and amount from a single container” it added.
“To get a better perspective, during 2019 a total of 750 kilogrammes was intercepted by customs from 16 containers.” – AFP, December 10, 2020
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