Joel the K9 lands 2.7 tonnes of cocaine

Cops in southern Italy have seized 2,700kg of cocaine hidden in banana crates shipped from Ecuador. The drugs were discovered with the help of sniffer dog Joel. The cocaine, which cops described as of the finest quality, could have brought traffickers more than $900 million in street sales if it had reached its ultimate destination in Armenia. The port of Gioia Tauro, in the “toe” of the Italian peninsula is a stronghold of ’ndrangheta. Days before the seizure, customs at the same port found some 600 kilos of cocaine in six container trucks laden with exotic fruit from Ecuador. Those shipments were destined for Croatia, Greece and Georgia.

Since 2021, and including the latest seizure, customs cops at the port have intercepted and seized 37 tons of cocaine.