Two men were charged on Friday after the discovery, on December 30, of more than two tons of cocaine hidden in a container at the port of Le Havre, in the northwest of France, French justice announced.
The two men, a 22-year-old dock worker and a 41-year-old truck driver, were charged in particular with importation of narcotics as part of an organized gang, criminal association and smuggling of goods dangerous to public health, the company said in a press release. Paris public prosecutor, Laure Beccuau.
These offenses are punishable by a sentence of 30 years of criminal imprisonment and the cocaine seized has an estimated retail value of more than 130 million euros (122 million Swiss francs), the press release added.
“The war against drug trafficking is intensifying day by day”
The French Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, welcomed this seizure on X, a sign according to him that “the war against drug trafficking is intensifying day by day”.
Nearly 45 tonnes of cocaine were seized between January and November 2024, double the seizures in 2023, French police director Louis Laugier indicated at the end of November.
Over the first 10 months of the year, 44.8 tonnes of cocaine were seized by the French services responsible for combating drug trafficking, compared to 23.2 tonnes for the whole of 2023, according to Louis Laugier.
“The particular operating method used”
Seizures of “new drugs” are “also up sharply” compared to 2023, he added, citing in particular an increase of “33% for amphetamines and meta-amphetamines”.
The police arrested “more than 18,100 traffickers in 2023” and “already 17,300 in the first 10 months of 2024”, detailed the police chief.
The investigation into the Le Havre affair continues to identify the accomplices. It has already made it possible to “highlight the particular operating mode used”, with “the deposit of a “clone container” in the unloading zone […] having identical marking to a container already referenced in the cargo of a ship to be unloaded,” indicated the Paris prosecutor’s office.
“One of the main entry points for cocaine”
“This clone container had previously been deposited at the port, so as to be able to make a substitution to avoid going through the scanner” of the container containing the drugs, explained gendarmerie colonel Joël Kerleau, who is leading the investigation.
“This is the first time that this way of operating has been used to our knowledge in the port of Le Havre,” he said, although the technique is already used in other foreign ports.
According to the Paris prosecutor’s office, this seizure “confirms that for several years, the port of Le Havre has become one of the main entry points for cocaine into the national metropolitan territory for transnational criminal organizations.”
In March 2024, 2.7 tonnes of cocaine had already been seized at the port of Le Havre in a container coming from Guadeloupe, hidden in moving crates.
(afp)
