Watertight Packets Wash Up On French Coast. They Held 2,300 Kg Cocaine

The overall avenue worth of the cocaine is estimated at 150 million euros

Paris:

Sealed luggage containing a complete of two.3 tonnes of cocaine have washed up on the northern French coast previously few days, a supply with data of the discover mentioned Thursday.

The drug was present in two batches of watertight packages on the Normandy English Channel coast, one on Sunday and one on Wednesday, the supply instructed AFP.

The overall avenue worth of the cocaine is estimated at 150 million euros ($159 million).

On Sunday, a number of luggage totalling 850 kilos have been discovered on the Reville seaside close to the northern tip of Normandy, and 6 extra luggage turned up on Wednesday on the close by seaside of Vicq-sur-Mer.

Police are nonetheless unsure the place the cocaine got here from — whether or not traffickers threw it overboard intentionally to keep away from arrest, or whether or not it got here free from their boats in heavy climate, sources within the investigation instructed AFP.

The native maritime authorities mentioned they have been on “particular watch” over the realm utilizing plane, with no extra medication noticed by Thursday afternoon.

The final time {that a} main cocaine cargo washed up on the French coast was in 2019, when a complete of 1.6 tonnes was discovered strewn all alongside the French Atlantic coast.

On Wednesday, the federal government mentioned that it had seized 27 tonnes of cocaine final yr, a five-fold enhance over the previous 10 years, as Europe faces a surge in trafficking and use of the drug.

Seizures have been up 5 p.c final yr in contrast with 2021, in response to inside ministry figures, with greater than half of the narcotic coming from the West Indies and France’s poverty-stricken South American area of Guiana.

Because the unlawful commerce has swelled, most cocaine now enters Europe by way of northern ports like Rotterdam, Antwerp, Hamburg and France’s Le Havre.

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