Gulf of Guinea: five tons of cocaine seized by the French Navy


Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: SERGE CHARMOILLAUX / MARINE NATIONALE / AFP

Last Wednesday, December 6, more than 5 tons of cocaine were discovered aboard a semi-rigid in the Gulf of Guinea, off the coast of Africa. The boat was questioned by a French Navy high seas patrol boat. Four suspected drug traffickers have been handed over to the Cape Verdean authorities.

More than five tonnes of cocaine were seized by the French Navy aboard a semi-rigid boat in the Gulf of Guinea, off the coast of Africa, the Atlantic maritime prefecture announced in a press release on Tuesday. “The tools of international judicial cooperation, immediately implemented by the Brest public prosecutor’s office, allowed the referral to the anti-drug prosecutor’s office in Madrid, then the arrest of the four alleged drug traffickers by the Cape Verde authorities,” specified Prefecture. The nationality of those arrested on board was not specified.

A market value of more than 330 million euros

The seizure of 5,132 kilos of cocaine, “with a market value in France estimated at more than 330 million euros”, was carried out on Wednesday December 6 aboard a “semi-rigid of around fifteen meters of type go fast”, according to the same source. The narcotics were transhipped onto the French Navy’s Patrouilleur de haute mer (PHM) “to be destroyed there”.

The operation took place “in light of information transmitted” by the Maritime Analysis and Operations Center (Narcotics), based in Lisbon, and by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the American federal agency responsible for combating drug trafficking. The French Navy almost permanently deploys one to two ships supported by a maritime patrol aircraft in the Gulf of Guinea as part of an operation called “Corymbe”.

In December 2022, the French Navy had already seized more than 4.6 tonnes of cocaine from a Brazilian tugboat in the Gulf of Guinea.





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