From the Associated Press

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — Croatian police on Tuesday displayed hundreds of pounds of drugs they say were seized in two separate operations last year in a southern Adriatic Sea port close to the famous resort of Dubrovnik.

The discovery last October in the port of Ploce of nearly 220 kilograms (482 pounds) of heroin was the biggest ever in Croatia, police said.

’We conducted a search of a container on board a ship that came to port of Ploce from Iraq,” Dubrovnik police criminal investigator Zoran Tikvica said. “Inside the container we found 80 boxes made of lead, weight of about 300 kilograms, and within 40 of these lead boxes we found 296 packages (of heroin.)

The heroin was meant for distribution in Western Europe, police said in a statement.

In November, divers found 61 kilograms (136 pounds) of cocaine in a metal container attached with magnets to the bottom of another ship from South America.

“In both of these operations, when we seized heroin, and when we seized cocaine, it was determined that the drugs were of extremely high quality and pure,” Tikvica said.

Police said the total estimated value of the seized drugs was 17 million euros ($19 million.)