Cocaine Dropped From Plane Smashes Through Roof Of House

Homeowners in Italy were given a fright when 8.5kg of pure cocaine came crashing through their roof.

The class A drugs smashed into the home after they were dropped from a light aircraft in a botched smuggling operation.

Francesco Rizzo - a 28-year-old flight instructor from Rome - is accused of plunging the haul on to a house in Oristano, Sardinia, in March.

Carabinieri Oristano

The drugs were supposed to land in the hands of traffickers, but instead smashed through the roof of a house in the village of Baratici San Pietro, breaking a solar panel in the process, according to the Daily Mail.

After hearing the bang, the homeowners called the police - and officers were initially confused about how the drugs wound up in the house.

Police said, when cut, the drugs could fetch around £6.8 million ($4.91 million) on the street.

Investigations subsequently revealed the plane departed from Roma Urbe airport, but disappeared from the radar for about 20 minutes while it was above Sardinia.

Its GPS and CCTV images confirmed the aircraft had flown over Oristano.

After months of searching for Rizzo, officers were able to arrest him yesterday (Tuesday 13 July) during a stopover at Cagliari-Elmas airport in Sardinia on a flight from Germany.

Carabinieri Oristano

In May, a wildlife manager stumbled upon 60lbs of cocaine while surveying turtle nests in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The wildlife manager in question was Angy Chambers, a wildlife supervisor with the 45th civil engineer squadron, whose military station is not far from Nasa's Kennedy Space Center.

Having discovered them, she alerted base security, who in turn called narcotics field officers from the Brevard sheriff's department.

The deputies turned up and promptly identified the substance as cocaine - worth about $1.2 million (£851,000).

"While I was waiting for them to arrive, I drove a little further and noticed another package, and then another," Angy said.

"I called back and suggested they bring their utility terrain vehicle as I counted at least 18 packages."

Space Launch Delta 45

Joseph Parker, 45th Security Forces Squadron (SFS) flight sergeant and on-scene commander at the incident, said when he arrived he suspected the packages contained drugs, and began search and closure protocols on all beaches.

He said: "After securing the scene and collecting the contraband, a Brevard County Sheriff's Office narcotics agent performed a field test on one of the packages and verified that it was cocaine.

"We then documented all 24 packages and placed them in evidence bags.

"We take pride in protecting our base and the surrounding community.

"There is also a higher level of job satisfaction knowing that these drugs will not make it into our community."

Topics: Police, World News, Cocaine, crime, Drugs, Italy

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey