Sealed bags containing 2.3 tonnes of cocaine worth an estimated 150 million euros have washed up on the northern French coast this week. This comes as Europe faces a surge in trafficking and use of the illicit drug.
The powder was found in two batches of watertight packages on the Normandy English Channel coast – one on Sunday and one on Wednesday, a source close to the case told AFP news agency.
The total street value of the cocaine is estimated at 150 million euros.
On Sunday, several bags totalling 850 kilos were found on Réville beach near the northern tip of Normandy, and six more bags turned up on Wednesday on the nearby beach of Vicq-sur-Mer.
Police are still uncertain where the cocaine came from – whether traffickers threw it overboard deliberately to avoid arrest, or whether it came loose from their boats in heavy weather.
Local maritime authorities said they were on "special watch", using aircraft over the area.
The last time that a major cocaine shipment washed up on the French coast was in 2019, when 1.6 tonnes was found strewn all along the French Atlantic coast.
Surge in trafficking
On Wednesday, the government said that it had seized 27 tonnes of cocaine last year, a five-fold increase over the past 10 years, as Europe faces a surge in trafficking and use of the drug.
Seizures were up 5 percent last year compared with 2021, according to Interior Ministry figures, with more than half of the narcotic coming from the West Indies and French Guiana in South America.
As the illegal trade has swelled, most cocaine now enters Europe through northern ports like Rotterdam, Antwerp, Hamburg and France's Le Havre.
With its vast cargo terminals where the River Seine reaches the sea, port city Le Havre has become the main point of entry for cocaine into France.
Nearly 2 tonnes were confiscated in just a few days last February according to the Ministry of Public Accounts, which oversees customs enforcement.
An AFP investigation earlier this year found that more than a sixth of the cocaine consumed in France is smuggled inside the bodies of drug mules, including pregnant women, on flights from Guiana.
On Thursday, a Canadian biosciences company Sunshine Earth Labs announced it had received a licence to produce, sell and distribute cocaine, reflecting the federal health agency's bid to improve safety conditions for the country's addicts.
However in a statement to CBC News Thursday night, Health Canada said the company was licensed to sell for scientific and medical purposes only.
"They cannot sell products to the general public," the federal department said.
(with AFP)
