Greek coast guard divers and special-mission officers seized more than 360 kilograms of cannabis worth about €1.08 million aboard a sailboat west of the island of Chios, arresting two Ukrainian men, authorities said.
A patrol boat from the Chios port authority spotted the Croatian-flagged yacht in the early hours of Saturday, 6.5 nautical miles south of the islet group of Antipsara in the eastern Aegean.
A second patrol boat carried frogmen from the coast guard's underwater missions unit.
Searching the vessel, officers found 27 hand-luggage bags holding airtight packages of raw cannabis with a gross weight of 360.7 kilograms.
The boat was escorted to Chios, where the two men aboard were arrested. Police also seized the sailboat, €2,000 in cash, a laptop and six mobile phones.
The operation followed intelligence from the coast guard's maritime border security directorate about a suspicious sailboat possibly involved in migrant smuggling or other illegal activity. The Chios drug-enforcement team, assisted by a special headquarters unit, is investigating whether the men were linked to other crimes, including people smuggling.
Shipping Minister Vasilis Kikilias praised the officers on X.
"We continue daily the fight against drug trafficking, for the safety of citizens," he wrote.
The area is a known smuggling route.
The islands off Turkey's western coast sit on paths used both by migrant boats and by traffickers moving drugs by sea, and the coast guard has made several large seizures from yachts in recent years.
Both suspects were due before a prosecutor. Police did not release their names.
