Police and marines discovered the drugs Tuesday in a cargo container aboard the Hong Kong-flagged ship Esmeralda, which sailed from Buenaventura, Colombia, the federal attorney general’s office said.

Authorities initially said they had found at least 11 metric tons (12 tons) of cocaine on the ship.

But on Thursday, the navy, the attorney general’s office and Public Safety and Defense departments released a statement saying a second stash of cocaine had been discovered amid the ship’s cargo, bringing the total seizure to 23.6 metric tons (26 tons).

The statement said the cocaine was found in more than 21,000 packages and that authorities were still searching for more drugs.

Mexico’s government called it the largest cocaine seizure in the country’s history. On Oct. 5, authorities seized 10 metric tons (11 tons) of cocaine in the northern Mexican city of Tampico. But Tuesday’s seizure also appeared to be one of the biggest anywhere.

In March, the U.S. Coast Guard seized more than 20 tons of cocaine, worth nearly US$300 million (euro208 million), off Panama’s Pacific coast. DEA spokesman Garrison Courtney on Thursday described the Panama bust as the largest known drug seizure.

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