Loire-Atlantique: 364 kg of cocaine seized at the port of Montoir-de-Bretagne

Europe 1 with AFP 07:35, June 01, 2022

The customs services intercepted a shipment of 364 kg of cocaine in containers on Monday at the port of Montoir-de-Bretagne, in Loire-Atlantique, we learned on Tuesday from the Rennes prosecutor's office.

"The seizure was made in containers and there are no arrests", prosecutor Philippe Astruc told AFP, refusing to give any other details in order "not to harm the investigations" which are to come. to start.

"The Saint-Nazaire public prosecutor's office has divested itself in favor of the JIRS (specialized interregional jurisdiction) public prosecutor's office in Rennes. An investigation has been entrusted to the SDPJ (sub-directorate of the judicial police) of Nantes and to the OFAST (Office anti-narcotics)", only indicated the magistrate.

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Deliveries that reveal "secondary routes"

Last October and January, ten defendants, including four Montoir dockers, were sentenced to four to ten years' imprisonment for having participated in the importation of cocaine in containers from the West Indies.

Investigators had seized 336 kilos of cocaine at the port of Montoir during four imports involving dockers between June 2017 and April 2020.

These deliveries, relatively low compared to the 9.05 tonnes of cocaine seized by customs in 2020, corresponded to a desire by traffickers to find "secondary routes" to enter the European market via ports less monitored than those of Le Havre, from Antwerp or Rotterdam.

The goods were imported by the "rip-off" technique, which consists of recovering the drugs placed in a container when the doors are opened.

The dockers recovered the cocaine on its arrival in Montoir by replacing a counterfeit seal on the container which had been opened.

The goods were handed over to intermediaries near the port.