Italian agents on Tuesday confiscated 4.3 tons of cocaine with a street value of nearly a quarter-billion euros (dollars) in the northeastern port city of Trieste, dealing a blow to Colombia's feared Gulf Clan in one of the largest drug busts ever in Europe. Arrest warrants were being executed for 38 people on suspicion of international drug trafficking in Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Colombia.
The seizure was carried out by Italian financial police and coordinated by anti-mafia investigators, following a yearlong investigation that also involved US Homeland Security.
The undercover operation “took another strong tackle to one of the most important groups of Colombian narcos," anti-mafia investigators said in a statement in English. Last month, the Gulf Clan's alleged boss was extradited from Colombia to the United States. Dairo Antonio Úsuga David, better known by the alias Otoniel, faces US indictments in three federal courts.