More than two tonnes of cocaine packed in bags, with an estimated value of €150 million, washed up on Sunday and Wednesday on France's western coastline, sources close to the case said on Thursday.
On Sunday morning, several bags containing about 850 kg of cocaine were discovered on the beach of Réville (Manche), and on Wednesday, six more bags were washed up on France's Cotentin Coast at Vicq-sur-Mer.
A source close to the case confirmed information from Ouest France that Wednesday's haul amounted to a tonne and a half of cocaine, bringing the total to a "historic" 2.3 tonnes.
On Wednesday, the maritime prefecture of the English Channel and the North Sea recalled that an investigation was opened at the beginning of the week by the Cherbourg prosecutor's office. The follow-up to the investigation was entrusted to the Caen research section, the maritime gendarmerie and Ofast, the office dedicated to the fight against drug trafficking.
The origin of the hermetically sealed bales that washed up on the French coastline has not been established. They may have been deliberately thrown overboard to avoid a checkpoint or may have fallen off a ship on their own, a source close to the case said.
Sometimes such bundles are stowed on the hull of the boat and not placed inside. They can thus come off, depending on the state of the sea, another source close to the case added.
Investigators must now try to trace the route of the bags.
The maritime prefecture said that the maritime approaches to the North Cotentin sector were being kept under special surveillance. "New overflights as well as maritime patrols are being carried out," it added.
As of early Thursday afternoon, there had been no new discoveries of drugs, the maritime prefecture said in a tweet on Thursday.
Speaking on Wednesday, at a press conference devoted to an assessment of the fight against drug trafficking in 2022, Gabriel Attal, the public accounts minister in charge of customs, had announced a "historic" seizure of 1.9 tonnes of cocaine in the port of Le Havre on 19 February by his services.
"We must avoid this white tsunami reaching our coasts," he had added.
In 2022, 27.7 tonnes of cocaine were seized, a 5% increase on the previous year.
