Italian Air-Naval Command teams boarded the Panamanian-flagged cargo ship Munzur about 10 miles north-east of the island of Pantelleria, near Sicily, on Wednesday 2 December 2015 and found 500 packages of hashish weighing about 13 tons.[1] The ship was detained and taken to the port of Palermo, where an investigation began to determine those responsible.[1]

The eleven crew members, of Ukrainian and Georgian nationality, were also detained.[1] The seizure formed part of the Frontex joint operation Triton 2015, and the European Union’s Copernicus programme records that its satellite services helped Italian authorities track the Munzur, leading to the seizure of the 13 tonnes found aboard.[1][2] The 3,331-deadweight-ton vessel, built in 2008, was operated by a Turkish company based in Mersin.[1]