Drug dealers are £17,000 out of pocket thanks to a marauding group of wild boars who got their snouts into a massive stash of cocaine, according to reports.
The dealers in Tuscany had hidden their Class-A in the woods but the boars - who have sparked protests from farmers and caused fatal car crashes in the region - sniffed it out.
The distraught gang of dealers revealed the story in a telephone conversation which police tapped into.
The gang were heard moaning about the thieving boars in the Valdichiana valley, who had found the stash in jars in the forest and gone on a drug-destroying rampage.
Three Albanians and an Italian were then arrested by the police over the smuggling ring.
Police managed to catch the four men, with two being jailed and two placed under house arrest.
Cops said the dealers are suspected of selling 4lbs of coke very month in the nightclubs of Arezzo.
They were prolific from September 2018 to March 2019 and charged £85 a gram for the high purity cocaine.
Italian newspaper Il Tirreno reports police began in bestigating after a 21-year-old alleged Albanian dealer was murdered in May 2018.
Boars are a major problem in Italy with farmers worried about the damage they are causing to their fields.
And the animals are also responsible for about 10,000 car crashes every year as they get on the roads.
President of the farming association Coldiretti Ettore Prandini said around two million boar are believed to roam Italy.
He said: "It is no longer just a question of compensation but a matter of personal safety and it must be resolved.
"Ministries and leaders of regions and municipalities must act in a concerted manner to draw up an extraordinary plan without administrative obstacles, otherwise the problem is destined to get worse."
