A new seizure of cocaine was made on May 22 by the armed forces in the Antilles. 1.14 tonnes of cocaine were intercepted, bringing the number of seizures to three in the space of three weeks.
New seizure in the Antilles. The French Navy seized nearly 1.4 tonnes of cocaine from a fishing vessel off the coast of Martinique, the Armed Forces in the Antilles (FAA) said on Friday, May 31. This is the third such seizure in the space of three weeks. The operation, which was carried out on May 22 by the crew of the frigate Ventôse, was made possible thanks to several pieces of information transmitted “by the British National Crime Agency (NCA) and the American anti-drug agency (DEA) “, the FAA said in a statement.
63 bales and four loaves of cocaine
After detecting using a Falcon 50 aircraft based in Guyana of the French Navy, the soldiers of the frigate Ventôse were able to “board the fishing vessel without a flag”, reports The Parisian. Inside the latter, agents managed to seize 63 bales and four bars of cocaine for a total cargo of 1,472 kilos.
This new seizure by the armed forces brings to three the number of seizures made over the last three weeks. Already on Monday, May 27, the FAA announced the seizure on May 15 of nearly 2.4 tons of cocaine on a Venezuelan fishing vessel located 1,500 kilometers from the Martinique coast. On May 1, 1.8 tons of drugs were also intercepted on a speedboat type boat not far from Saint-Martin.
Particularly intense in the Antilles-Guyana arc, drug seizures by the armed forces have increased in recent times. Indeed, traffickers are seeking to transport ever more narcotics from South America towards the European continent or the United States. In total, 14 tonnes of narcotics have already been seized since the start of the year, compared to 11 tonnes in 2023.