Two tonnes of cocaine have been found floating in the middle of the ocean near Italy.
With a street value of around £354 million, the drugs had been wrapped in protective plastic, strung together with netting, and left off the coast of eastern Sicily.
There was just enough plastic to stop it getting wet, without weighing them down and causing them to sink.
Investigators speculated a cargo ship had left the haul in the sea for another vessel to pick up and take to land.
Police aircraft flew over the area as a precaution in case any packages had become separated from the netting.
In all, officers scooped up more than 1,600 packets of cocaine from 70 bobbing bundles.
It comes after containers holding £261 million worth of cocaine were found floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in February.
Just over three tonnes of coke – which could have ‘serviced’ Australia for a year – was dropped in the water by an international smuggling gang, it is believed.
The mammoth seizure would have dealt a significant financial blow to everyone involved, from the South American producers, all the way to the distributors.
In March, a couple walking on the beach stumbled across more than £50 million worth of Class A drugs.
The pair were strolling along when they spotted suspicious construction bags in Normandy, France.
They immediately called the police, who soon discovered the packages were filled with 800 kilograms (0.88 tonnes) of cocaine.
