More than 3.6 tonnes of cocaine were seized in one week in the Antilles-Guyana arc, announced Thursday the public prosecutor of Fort-de-France, Clarisse Taron.
These are two catches of identical weight, carried out in Guyana and Saint-Martin, within the jurisdiction of the specialized interregional jurisdiction (JIRS) of Fort-de-France, in Martinique.
Two loads of the same drug
First on April 25, Guyana customs discovered, at the commercial port of Dégrad des Cannes, a container with 1,500 bars of cocaine corresponding to 1.82 tons of product, bound for Le Havre.
Then on April 30, 2024, it was the customs of Saint-Martin, further north in the Caribbean, who got wind of a landing of the same drug packaged in bags weighing 1.8 tonnes. The drugs were on board a “cigarette” type boat, equipped with powerful engines and popular with traffickers. Urgently requested, the police intervened and intercepted the product. Several people managed to escape.
These two seizures gave rise to the opening of legal proceedings entrusted to the anti-narcotics office. To date, there have been no arrests.
Ever larger quantities
After the 8.3 tonnes, seized in February 2024 over a period of around ten days, these two new seizures illustrate the reality of drug trafficking in the Antilles-Guyana arc. From this sector, traffickers use all means to transport increasingly large quantities of cocaine from South America to Europe or the United States.
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 ten 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 cocaine seized in 2022 came from the Antilles and Guyana, a transit zone before arriving in mainland France.