Italy seizes 10 tonnes of hashish from fishing vessel Quest
Italy's Guardia di Finanza boarded the Dutch-flagged fishing vessel Quest about 130 nautical miles south-east of Sicily on 7 June 2018 and found more than 10 tonnes of cannabis resin. All nine crew were arrested in the operation, run with other European states under the Libeccio International initiative; police valued the haul at up to 20 million euros.
🇮🇹 Mediterranean Sea, about 130 nautical miles south-east of Sicily · Italy
Italy’s Guardia di Finanza finance police boarded the Dutch-flagged fishing
vessel Quest about 130 nautical miles south-east of Sicily on 7 June 2018
after tracking it from the air for two days.[1][2][3]Officers found more than
10 tonnes of cannabis resin on board, arrested all nine crew members and
confiscated the vessel.[1][2][3]The finance police said the resin was high
quality, with a market value of between 15 and 20 million euros.[1]
The Quest had been overhauled that spring at a Valletta wharf and renamed
from Sea View shortly before the voyage, which investigators say was done to
confuse them.[2]It had sailed from the Gulf of Oran off Morocco claiming
to be bound for Alexandria, and the patrol ship Monte Sperone watched it for
40 hours before two armed teams boarded it as it motored toward western
Sicily.[2]Two of those detained, including the first officer, were
identified as members of a Maltese criminal organisation previously arrested
in Spain over cigarette smuggling.[1][3]The raid was part of Libeccio
International, the joint anti-trafficking operation in which Italy works with
other European states.[1][2]
A third crew member was a Sicilian previously accused of armed robbery, VOA reported.[3]The vessel had left Malta for Gibraltar and was met between Morocco and Algeria by powerful speedboats that brought it the drug.[3]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
AFP says the Quest left Malta for the Strait of Gibraltar while OCCRP's police sources say it was heading for Tobruk, Libya; this report does not choose between the two accounts.
The finance police valued the haul between 15 and 20 million euros, so this report records 20 million euros.
A third crew member was described by police as a Sicilian previously accused of armed robbery; VOA gives neither his name nor the outcome of any case against him.
Two of the nine crew were described as members of a Maltese criminal organisation; VOA does not name them or say whether they were charged.
VOA and AFP say the vessel sailed for Gibraltar, while the report's OCCRP sources say it was bound for Tobruk, Libya; this account does not settle the dispute.
VOA's only picture is captioned as a 2017 Albanian cargo seizure, so no photo of this 2018 interception was added.
Carabinieri of the Gorizia company found a 37-year-old man smoking a joint on the second floor of the disused Albero alla Transalpina in via Giuseppe Caprin on 10 November 2026 and seized more than two grams of marijuana. The man was taken to the company offices and reported to the Prefecture of Gorizia for possession of drugs for personal use; no arrest was reported.
Guardia di Finanza officers stopped a car in Lario Intelvese and recovered 21.2 grams of hashish thrown away by one of five youths. The youth was reported to the judicial authority for possession for dealing and the drugs were seized.
Carabinieri from the Donori station stopped two unemployed 20-year-olds from Ussana in a car and found a small amount of hashish and a packet of benzodiazepine medicines without a prescription. The pair were reported to the administrative authority and the driver lost his licence; nobody was arrested.
Carabinieri stopped a 35-year-old from Rieti at a checkpoint on State Road 4 Salaria by the disused ex Bosi industrial area in Cittaducale and found about 12 grams of hashish, a precision scale and packaging material in his car and home. He was released pending trial and reported to the prosecutor in Rieti on suspicion of holding drugs for sale.
