It is a seizure with a market value of around 230 million euros. Just over three tonnes of cocaine were seized in Italy, and three people were arrested in Marseille, said Marseille prosecutor Dominique Laurens.
Coming from South America, the drugs were to arrive in Marseille. Three people who were to take delivery of the drug in France were arrested near Marseille, she added during a press conference with the patroness of the French anti-drug agents (OFAST) Stéphanie Cherbonnier and, by videoconference, Italian prosecutor Giuseppe Creazzo.
Caught red-handed
Packed in 90 sports bags hidden in a container in the middle of a cargo of mashed bananas, the cocaine was seized by the Italian Carabinieri during the ship's stopover in Livorno, in the north-west of the country, on Monday. It was then that it was replaced “by substitute products”, before the container set out again for Genoa (Italy) then Marseilles, its final destination, specified Dominique Laurens.
In Marseille, Thursday morning, after the container was unloaded, three men took charge of what they therefore believed to be cocaine. They were arrested in Saint-Miter-les-Remparts, about forty kilometers west of Marseille, while they were unloading the bags, in a villa.
- Marseilles
- Drug
- Cocaine