The find was made in Gioia Tauro in Calabria, having arrived from Iran. It was hidden in bags of powdered milk and destined to be re-shipped to Syria. RDX is generally reserved for military and industrial use and investigators do not believe the mafia to be the end users of the newly-seized batch.
The substance has been used by the Cosa Nostra in Italy before, notably in the assassinations of anti-mafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.