Italian finance police found more than 20 tonnes of hashish hidden in the hull of the cargo ship Jupiter after diverting it to the port of Cagliari in Sardinia.[1] Officers spent more than 18 days searching the vessel and used cranes to move enormous granite blocks before finding 821 packages weighing 20.5 tonnes in a ballast tank in the bow.[1] Police put the street value at 200 million euros.[1]

The seizure closed an international operation led by Italy and closely supported by France, Spain and Europol against transatlantic-scale resin trafficking in the Mediterranean.[2] The Italian Guardia di Finanza and DCSA worked with the French OCRTIS-DCPJ and CeCLAD-M, the Spanish Guardia Civil and Europol, with French officers assisting on the spot during the search.[2] Air and naval units had located the vessel on the evening of 26 September 2015 with help from a Spanish Guardia Civil aircraft, then boarded it under Article 17 of the 1988 UN drug-trafficking convention and escorted it to Cagliari.[2]

The ship’s captain and nine crew members, all Syrian, were arrested.[1] A second account likewise reports ten Syrian citizens arrested, with six Indian citizens taken into custody for further investigation.[2] The Jupiter flies the flag of the Cook Islands and its last port of call was Vigo in Spain.[1]