Since October, packets of cocaine are stranded on the beaches of the Atlantic, from Brittany to the Landes. About a hundred investigators are mobilised.
The collection of bales of cocaine by the authorities continues on the French beaches of the Atlantic facade. From the tip of Brittany to the beaches of the Landes, more than a ton of packages containing cocaine have been found since October 18th, announced the Rennes public prosecutor, Philippe Astruc, in a statement released Tuesday, November 12, 2019.
The day before, a 17-year-old teenager was arrested after recovering 5 kg of cocaine on a beach in Lacanau (Gironde), while the beach was closed to the public.
“Degree of purity important at 83%”
The arrival of these drug packages on the beaches of the Atlantic is noted since October 18, “with an intensification since November 4,” says the prosecutor, which states that a “discovery of 5 kg was made this day in Camaret-sur-Mer »(Finistère).
“It’s the same cargo” that happens sparsely on the French coast and it’s all about cocaine, he added.
The size of a shoebox, surrounded by cellophane to be hermetic, these bales contain cocaine base “a degree of purity important to 83%” which requires special vigilance:
“It is a very dangerous product in this form its consumption can lead to overdose.”
In total, so far, 1010 kg have been found in stranded packaging.
Surveillance intensive
Faced with the danger of the product, intensive surveillance was set up by the customs and the national gendarmerie all along the French coast.
The authorities recall that any discovery must be declared to the authorities “without any manipulation”.
Collecting these products and transporting them is indeed “an offence punishable by 10 years of imprisonment”.
The Interregional Specialized Jurisdiction in the fight against organized crime in Rennes has been seized of the procedure. It centralises the research carried out by the public prosecutors of Saint-Nazaire, Bordeaux, Dax and Quimper.
The prosecutor adds that three complementary services participate in the investigation, “in an exceptional way”, namely the central direction of the judicial police and in particular the Central Office for the suppression of the illicit traffic in narcotics, the gendarmerie group of Loire-Atlantique. Atlantic and the Maritime Gendarmerie Research Section. The parquet floor states:
“Police co-operation on a European scale has been put in place as well as with the American authorities (DEA), the latter having seen the arrival on their coasts of narcotics which do not seem to come from the same source.”
A hundred investigators mobilized
At this stage of the investigation, the hypothesis of a load shedding following damage or a storm is preferred by the investigators. A hundred people are mobilized, especially on the analysis of maritime flows.
The public prosecutor reminds that this is not the first time that narcotics land on the French coast by sea, “from South America or the West Indies”.
During the summer of 2015, two skippers were arrested off Brittany with 1.6 tons of cocaine aboard their boat. They were sentenced in February 2017 by the Criminal Court of Rennes to terms of seven and eight years imprisonment.
In December 2015, a seizure of 1.4 tons of cocaine was made in the Caen region following a cargo arrives at the port of Le Havre. The judicial information is in progress, specifies the parquet floor.
In early October 2019, three people were arrested at the port of Montoir-de-Bretagne with a quantity of 144 kg of cocaine arrived by cargo. Judicial information is also in progress.
