Some 60 kilogrammes of cocaine, worth up to €11 million, were seized by the Malta Customs Department at Malta Freeport on Monday, the department said today.

Late afternoon on Monday, Customs officers stationed at the Container Monitoring Unit flagged a container for a thorough examination due to its suspicious route.

The 20' container, which left a South American country and stopped in Malta en-route to the Middle East, was declared to be carrying 532 drums of water-proofing compound. Subsequently, officials from the customs scanning team scanned the container and they noticed some irregularities in the imagery.

On physically examining, one by one, all 562 drums, the officials found the drugs in six of the drums.

They contained plastic bags full of white substance, in paste form not powder, submerged in an oily liquid. 10kgs of this paste was elevated from each drum, for a total amount of 60kgs.

Upon carrying out a preliminary narcotics’ field-test, the substance strongly and instantly reacted positive to cocaine, suggesting high level of purity. In fact, laborious laboratory analysis carried out on Tuesday, including a long drying process of the substance, proved that the cocaine purity level is 100%.

Due to its level of purity, the seizure is conservatively calculated, in street value, to be worth between €9 million and €11 million, when added with other agents, and it is considered as a unique seizure in its intricate nature. It is definitely the first of its kind in Malta, the department said.

The case was handed over to the Police Anti Drug Squad, who are conducting the investigations, while the Duty Magistrate is leading the inquiry, assisted by a team of experts from the Police Forensic Unit.