Almost two tons of cocaine with a market value of over 400 million euros ($440 million) were found floating in the sea off eastern Sicily in what Italian tax and customs police called a record-breaking seizure on Monday.

The drug was stored in some 70 waterproof bags, carefully sealed, tied with fishing nets and equipped with a light signaling device, the Guardia di Finanza said in a statement.

“Special packing methods and the presence of a tracking light” suggest that the booty was dumped at sea by a cargo ship. get later, add a statement.

At the same time, aircraft of the Pratica di Mare Aeronautical Research Group and the Catania Air Maneuvers Section began aerial reconnaissance aimed at checking possible presence of other scattered lumps in the area of ​​the find, they said.

Seizure on Monday compared to 20 tons of cocaine which the Italian police managed to intercept for the whole of 2021, its anti-narcotics unit said in figures published last June, stressing that this is the largest annual number recorded.

“The detection and subsequent seizure of such a large amount of drugs, one of the largest ever seized in the country, prevented criminals from seizing drugs for its subsequent illegal commercialization in the countrywhich would report very high profits, around 400 million euros at retail,” said Guardia di Finanza.

Seizures of cocaine increased by more than five times from 3.6 tons in 2018, said the police at the time, calling Italy a key transit route for cocaine trade, and where criminal groups from the Balkans strengthened their positions.