Authorities announced on Friday that they seized 800 kilos of cocaine aboard a cargo ship, dubbed as the largest haul of the drug seized in a single operation in Turkey according to Turkish media.The operation carried out in the first week of August was disclosed to press by the governorate of Kocaeli, a northwestern province neighboring Istanbul.
The vessel arrived in Turkey from an unspecified South American country and stopped by eight countries before arriving in Turkey. Kocaeli Governor Hüseyin Aksoy said at a press conference on Friday that the cocaine was hidden inside packs of ferrosilicon, an alloy used for deoxidizing steel, in electric and chemical industries.
A sniff dog detected the cocaine after gendarme officers raided the vessel at a port in Kocaeli upon a tip-off. Aksoy said ferrosilicon was meant to prevent cocaine to emit any smell that sniff dogs are sensitive to. No suspects were detained so far in connection with the operation but the governor said an investigation was underway.
