20 tonnes of drugs seized

MORE than 20 tonnes of cannabis has been seized by Italian coastguards from a Comoros-registered ship off the island of Sicily.

Officers yesterday escorted the ship to the Sicilian port of Marsala where they discovered hashish resin in sacks.

Six crewmen, said to be of Syrian origin, were arrested.

“This is the most important operation in the Mediterranean Sea in the past ten years,” a police spokesman said.

The ship had left the North African state of Morocco, one of the world’s largest producers of illicit hashish, mostly shipped to Western Europe.