Cocaine shipment marked with Serbian flag seized in Italian port

Italian authorities have intercepted a significant drug shipment, seizing nearly 800 kilograms of high-purity cocaine in the port of Vado Ligure. The cocaine, discovered in a refrigerated container within a shipment of bananas from Ecuador, was packed into 650 individual packages. The discovery on July 21 has raised particular interest in Serbia, as a number of these packages were marked with the Serbian flag.

This is the second major cocaine seizure in Vado Ligure within a short period, following a previous discovery of 340 kilograms on July 3. Italian officials attribute these seizures to intensified controls along trade routes connecting South America with the port. Vado Ligure, a town with a population of around 8,000 near Genoa, has increasingly become a crucial hub for trade flowing into Europe, making it an attractive destination for organized crime.

Once a marginal container terminal, Vado Ligure's significance has grown substantially since Italy joined China's Belt and Road Initiative. Although Italy later withdrew from the project, the port's development, including the opening of a new terminal in December 2019, has positioned it as a key competitor to larger regional ports. Its strategic importance is further enhanced by a four-track railway terminal capable of handling up to 14 trains daily, facilitating the onward transport of goods to Central and Northern Europe, including Switzerland, Germany, and France. Container traffic in the port has doubled in recent years, with nearly 600,000 containers passing through last year, according to Saša Đorđević of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.