The undisclosed packet washed up on the French coast. they had 2,300 kilos of cocaine

Paris:

A total of 2.3 tonnes of sealed bags containing cocaine have washed up on the northern French coast over the past few days, a source with knowledge of the find said on Thursday.

The drug was found in two batches in watertight packages off the coast of Normandy in the English Channel, one on Sunday and the other on Wednesday, the source told AFP.

The total market value of cocaine has been estimated at 150 million euros ($159 million).

On Sunday, several bags totaling 850 kilos were found on the beach at Reville near the northern tip of Normandy, and on Wednesday six more bags were found on a beach near Vic-sur-Mer.

Investigation sources told AFP that police are still unsure where the cocaine came from – whether smugglers deliberately dumped it overboard to avoid arrest, or whether it fell from their boats in heavy weather.

Local maritime authorities said they were on “special surveillance” over the area using aircraft, with no further sightings of the drug as of Thursday afternoon.

The last time a large consignment of cocaine washed up on the French coast was in 2019, when a total of 1.6 tonnes of cocaine was found scattered across the French Atlantic coast.

On Wednesday, the government said it seized 27 tonnes of cocaine last year, a fivefold increase over the past 10 years, as Europe faces a surge in trafficking and drug use.

There was a five percent increase in seizures last year compared to 2021, according to Interior Ministry figures, with more than half of the narcotics coming from the West Indies and France’s poverty-stricken South American territory of Guyana.

As trafficking has increased, most cocaine now enters Europe through northern ports such as Rotterdam, Antwerp, Hamburg and Le Havre in France.

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