About 3,400 kilograms of cannabis resin were saved from the flames out of the 30 tons torched by the crew of the Tanzanian registered cargo ship off Malta last weekend.

A spokesman for Italy’s Guardia di Finanza yesterday told Times of Malta that the Italian police arrested nine people in connection with the Gold Star drug find and the case was now being investigated by the Modica courts.

The spokesman would not divulge further information, not even the destination of the vessel with a cannabis cargo believed to have a street value of €300 million.

Sources said the tanker was not heading towards Malta though it was intercepted 30 nautical miles from the island.

On Friday, the Gold Star sailed into the Mediterranean between Capo Passero, off Syracuse, and the Maltese islands.

Italian police arrested nine people in connection with the Gold Star drug find

It was immediately surrounded by Italy’s air and naval enforcement units.

In a media statement released on Saturday, the Italian coastguard said it had been monitoring the tanker for three days after it was informed by its drug squad that there was a substantial amount of drugs on board.

On realising that the Italian authorities had caught up with them the crew members of the tanker – who were Syrians and Egyptians – started a fire to destroy the cargo, the statement said.

The Armed Forces of Malta received a distress call and joined the Italian forces to help them put out the fire.

The AFM dispatched three of its maritime vessels as well as a helicopter.

The fire raged for hours and was only extinguished on Saturday afternoon, by which time the vessel was positioned 16 nautical miles away from Malta’s coast.

The damaged vessel was then towed to Pozzallo in Sicily by the Italian authorities.