A total of 1.8 tonnes of cocaine was seized on Tuesday (April 30, 2024) on an outboard boat off the island of Saint-Martin, AFP learned on Wednesday May 1, from sources close to the matter.
The seizure took place late Tuesday afternoon, when this boat, without name or registration, had just moored at a pontoon in the town of Marigot, in the French part of the island, detailed one of these sources.
Once this “cigarette” type boat, a very powerful boat popular with drug traffickers, was moored, its occupants “immediately” fled, added this Source. They could not be found for the moment.
Inside the boat, “several dozen bales“of cocaine, for a total weight of 1.8 tonnes, were found by local police, this Source said.
The Basse-Terre public prosecutor’s office entrusted the investigation to the Ofast branch, anti-narcotics office, of Saint-Martin.
Research continues for “identify the means of escape used by traffickers“, said this Source again.
In 2022, 27.7 tonnes of cocaine were intercepted according to the authorities’ latest report, an increase of 5% compared to 2021, a figure multiplied by five in 10 years.
Transport by sea is the main gateway for cocaine in France, with 75.4% of the quantities seized, or 16.3 tonnes.
More than half (55%) of the white powder seized in 2022 came from the Antilles and Guyana, a transit zone before arriving in France.
