Italian authorities report seizure of cocaine totalling $560m on containership

Italy's Ministry of the Interior and the country's Guardia di Finanza financial police force recently confirmed the successful seizure of cocaine worth more than US$560 million on a commercial ship at the Port of Livorno.

The successful operation was conducted in early March 2025 but was not revealed to Italian local media until just last week.

The target of the operation was the Malta-registered container vessel Mersin Express, which arrived at Livorno in March after having earlier departed Guayaquil in Ecuador.

The ship then made stops in Colon, Panama; Cartagena, Colombia; the Spanish ports of Vigo, Malaga and Valencia; and the Italian port of Genoa before finally reaching Livorno. However, Italian officials said that the drugs may have been loaded onto the ship while it was still in Ecuador.

The Turkish company that owns Mersin Express is also the owner of another containership that had been seized in Spain in November 2024 for transporting over 500 kg of cocaine in addition to its registered cargo of bananas.