(Bloomberg) -- Federal authorities have seized 16.5 tons of cocaine with a street value of more than $1 billion off a cargo ship at a South Philadelphia port, the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania said in a series of tweets Tuesday.
The haul is the largest drug seizure in the history of the district and members of the ship's crew have been arrested and federally charged in the ongoing investigation, the Attorney's Office said.
The drugs were found in seven containers loaded on the ship, local news affiliate NBC10 had reported earlier.
Citing multiple law enforcement sources, the news station said the vessel had been to Chile and Panama but investigators believe it was loaded with drugs after its last port of call in the Bahamas.
To contact the reporter on this story: Belinda Cao in New York at lcao4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Polina Noskova at pnoskova@bloomberg.net, Sebastian Tong
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