GIOIA TAURO

'Gioia Tauro' is a municipality belonging to the province of Reggio Calabria, in Calabria (Italy). It has an important port.

Contents

Winds

Gioia Tauro seaport

References

External links

Winds

★ Sirocco, a hot dry wind originating in the desert of Sahara (from South-East);

★ Libeccio, very dangerous for shippers (to be avoided - from South-West);

★ Mistral (Ponente), the predominant and quiet wind (from North-West).

Gioia Tauro seaport

Within the seaport more than 3,000,000 TEUs per year are handled, receiving more than 3,000 ships (2005): It is the largest seaport in Italy in terms of container throughput (right before Genoa and La Spezia). It is the second largest in the Mediterranean Sea (just behind Algeciras) and is ranked sixth in all of Europe.
The seaport represents more than a third (2002) of the whole national traffic and is specialised in transhipment activities, taking the place of the Malta seaport as the node for overseas traffic from/to USA and from/to the Far East.
The Medcenter Container Terminal (MCT, Contship) is the main operator working within the seaport of Gioia Tauro.
According to a 2006 report, Italian investigators estimate that 80% of Europe's cocaine arrives from Colombia via Gioia Tauro's docks. The port is also involved in the illegal arms trade. These activities are controlled by the Calabrian crime families known as 'Ndrangheta.^[1]

References

1. Bitter harvest

External links

★ ItalianVisits.com

★ PianaLUG (in Italian)