Wild boar discover, snort cocaine stash
Hidden haul worth £17,000 was strewn across Italian valley after being dug up and devoured by hogs
. PHOTO: SKY NEWS
Wild boar in Tuscany sniffed out and destroyed a stash of cocaine worth £17,000 that had been buried in a forest.
The hidden haul of white powder was strewn across the Valdichiana valley after being dug up and partly devoured by the feral hogs on November 15, Sky News reported.
Drug dealers could be heard complaining about the discovery by police who were listening in on a telephone conversation.
The gang - who are made up of one Italian and three Albanians - had buried the class A drug in jars and were allegedly trafficking around two kilos of cocaine every month to the cities of Arezzo and Siena.
However, the jars were not enough to protect the cocaine from the curious snouts of the wild boar.
Swine sweats: Wild boars summering in the hills
The wiretapped phone call led to the detention of the men, with two jailed and two others placed under house arrest.
The gang was said to have been operating from September 2018 to March 2019 and charged £85 per gram for high-quality cocaine.
A police investigation began after a 21-year-old Albanian, allegedly a dealer, was murdered in May last year.
The drug dealers are not the only people concerned with the influx of wild boar in Italy, with farmers protesting in Rome earlier this month over the animals wreaking havoc on their land and causing fatal car accidents.
Two million boar are estimated to roam Italy, according to president of the farming association, Coldiretti Ettore Prandini.
He said: "It is no longer just a question of compensation but a matter of personal safety and it must be resolved. Ministries and leaders of regions and municipalities must act in a concerted manner to draw up an extraordinary plan without administrative obstacles, otherwise the problem is destined to get worse."
The hidden haul of white powder was strewn across the Valdichiana valley after being dug up and partly devoured by the feral hogs on November 15, Sky News reported.
Drug dealers could be heard complaining about the discovery by police who were listening in on a telephone conversation.
The gang - who are made up of one Italian and three Albanians - had buried the class A drug in jars and were allegedly trafficking around two kilos of cocaine every month to the cities of Arezzo and Siena.
However, the jars were not enough to protect the cocaine from the curious snouts of the wild boar.
Swine sweats: Wild boars summering in the hills
The wiretapped phone call led to the detention of the men, with two jailed and two others placed under house arrest.
The gang was said to have been operating from September 2018 to March 2019 and charged £85 per gram for high-quality cocaine.
A police investigation began after a 21-year-old Albanian, allegedly a dealer, was murdered in May last year.
The drug dealers are not the only people concerned with the influx of wild boar in Italy, with farmers protesting in Rome earlier this month over the animals wreaking havoc on their land and causing fatal car accidents.
Two million boar are estimated to roam Italy, according to president of the farming association, Coldiretti Ettore Prandini.
He said: "It is no longer just a question of compensation but a matter of personal safety and it must be resolved. Ministries and leaders of regions and municipalities must act in a concerted manner to draw up an extraordinary plan without administrative obstacles, otherwise the problem is destined to get worse."