Bags containing 2.3 tonnes of cocaine wash up on Normandy coast
Sealed bags containing a total of 2.3 tonnes of cocaine have washed up on the northern French coast in the past few days, a source with knowledge of the find has said.
The drug was found in two batches of watertight packages on the Normandy coast, one on Sunday and one on Wednesday, the source told Agence France-Presse on Thursday.
The total street value of the cocaine is estimated at €150m (£133m).
On Sunday, several bags totalling 850 kg were found on the Néville beach near the northern tip of Normandy, and six more bags turned up on Wednesday on the nearby beach of Vicq-sur-Mer.
Police are still uncertain where the cocaine came from – whether traffickers threw it overboard deliberately to avoid arrest, or whether it came loose from their boats in heavy weather, sources in the investigation told AFP.
The local maritime authorities said they were on “special watch” over the area using aircraft, with no more drugs spotted by Thursday afternoon.
The last time that a large cocaine shipment washed up on the French coast was in 2019, when a total of 1.6 tonnes was found strewn all along the French Atlantic coast.
On Wednesday, the government said that it had seized 27 tonnes of cocaine last year, a five-fold increase over the past 10 years, as Europe faces a surge in trafficking and use of the drug.
Seizures were up 5% last year compared with 2021, according to interior ministry figures, with more than half of the narcotic coming from the West Indies and French Guiana.
As the illegal trade has swelled, most cocaine now enters Europe through northern ports like Rotterdam, Antwerp, Hamburg and France’s Le Havre.