More than three tonnes of cocaine were seized on Thursday by French and Italian police. A record in mainland France according to French investigators, even if technically, it was achieved in Italy. Three suspects arrested near Marseilles are currently in police custody, questioned by the investigators of the Office anti-narcotics (OFAST) who monitored them since the delivery.
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Franco-Italian coordination successful
Franco-Italian cooperation has worked perfectly. The container ship, flying the Marshall Islands flag, left Colombia three weeks ago with 3.3 tonnes of cocaine on board. And headed for Spain, Malta, Italy, then Marseille, its final destination. But during his Italian stopover on Monday in Livorno, the Carabinieri seized a large part of the cocaine and replaced it with substitute powder, in identical sports bags.
Thursday morning, at the port of Marseille, three experienced traffickers recovered the 90 bags as planned and loaded them into a van under the discreet eye of the investigators. The latter picked them up a little later in a villa near the Etang de Berre, when the suspects were unloading the cargo. They are three men, 38 and 43 years old, already well known for drug trafficking.
The drug could have made 230 million euros at retail resale
This seizure constitutes a record take for OFAST, the new anti-narcotics office born on January 1, 2020. What is more in a case concerning the port of Marseille, hitherto deemed impenetrable for the police, much more than that of Haven. The drug could have brought in 230 million euros at retail resale, according to OFAST.
The largest cocaine intake ever signed by the French authorities, of 4.3 tonnes, took place in 2006 off Martinique, in the French West Indies, on board a Panamanian freighter. In 2019, 14.5 tonnes of cocaine were seized in France, a record level.