The official cargo, consisting of sacks of powdered glue, was worth only a few thousand euros. However, beneath those sacks lay another powder with a market value of at least 15 million euros. This was pure cocaine, discovered by police in a hidden compartment within the semi-trailer of an articulated lorry stopped near the A2 motorway junction in Sant’Onofrio, in the province of Vibo Valentia, just a few kilometres from the port of Gioia Tauro.
The investigation stemmed from a tip-off from the Central Directorate for Anti-Drug Services, which had identified a possible shipment of cocaine hidden aboard an industrial vehicle transiting through national territory. Upon receiving the information, the Central Operational Service of the State Police coordinated the intervention of various operational units. The vehicle was identified and subsequently stopped by the Traffic Police in Sant’Onofrio.
The search of the semi-trailer involved the use of a drug-sniffing dog, which detected 125 vacuum-sealed packages of cocaine, each weighing approximately 1.1 kilograms. The lorry’s driver, a forty-year-old man from Polistena with a criminal record for various offences, was arrested on charges of drug possession and trafficking. Investigations will continue to identify the network of contacts and masterminds behind the drug trafficking operation, which is believed to be linked to the powerful ‘Ndrangheta clans operating in the Gioia Tauro plain.
According to investigators, cocaine shipments arriving from South America and landing in Italian ports—Gioia Tauro remains the primary hub, at least in terms of the volume of seizures—are then transported by lorries, which offer several advantages. Firstly, they can carry large quantities of cargo. Secondly, drugs can be concealed within legitimate loads, with the possibility of creating hidden compartments. Additionally, the sheer number of industrial vehicles travelling across the country makes systematic checks difficult, unless, as in this case, there are specific intelligence reports or the haulage company in question is already under surveillance.
