FLASH NEWS
800 kg of cocaine seized off the coast of France, 28 arrested, including an Albanian
2025-04-07 09:44:04 / AKTUALITET
During the first hours of April 3 to 4, 2025, the French authorities with competence in the Normandy area and in the Seine estuary launched a vast judicial police operation that has been classified as historic, as it served to dismantle a large criminal network dedicated to a highly specialized activity that had not been seen so far in France and that is widely used in the high drug collection in Spain of cocaine through fishing boats or speedboats.
The operation resulted in the seizure of three ships (a cargo ship, a fishing vessel and a speedboat), the seizure of 800 kilograms of cocaine from Brazil and the arrest of 28 people associated with the crews and the organization receiving the illegal cargo.
The departments of Calvados and Seine-Maritime, under the authority of an investigating judge from Rennes, carried out the action for the arrest in flagrante delicto of the perpetrators of an importation of narcotic products (cocaine) by means of 'throwing', a modus operandi characteristic of the most experienced criminal groups mentioned above. The Albanian mafia could be behind what happened, since among those arrested there is at least one individual of that nationality.
A preliminary investigation, launched by the organized crime division of the Caen Public Prosecutor's Office, led to the referral of the proceedings to the Rennes Public Prosecutor's Office. The investigation was opened on October 19, 2023 and updated on February 19, 2024. After 18 months of investigation, the OFAST organized crime division of the Paris National Police, the OFAST branch in Le Havre and other police forces were deployed last Thursday, with information that a large drug shipment was heading to north-west France.
At that moment, the available resources were activated to ensure tight surveillance around several criminals and accomplices, including the crew of a fishing boat from Ouistrham and the owner of a speedboat usually anchored in the Seine Maritime. Around midnight, an unprecedented operation was launched to coordinate all these services. Nearly 100 police officers were deployed to arrest the accused when they returned to shore on board the boats at the same time in Ouistrham and Tancarville.
A total of six men, including three fishermen and two women, were arrested in Tancarville, Le Havre and Ouistrham. They were born between 1976 and 1999 and live in Calvados and Seine Maritime. One of them is of Albanian nationality. Some have court proceedings related to fishing crimes, others have convictions for aggravated theft, violence or drug trafficking.
At the same time, a ship was identified as the one transporting the drugs near the French coast thanks to the analyses of the Douane and the DNRED of Nantes. This cargo ship, which departed from Brazil and was due to arrive in Amsterdam, was diverted on Thursday 4 April 2025 in the port of Dunkirk by the French Coast Guard on the orders of the investigating judge. The entire crew, made up of 22 sailors of Filipino origin, was detained by the maritime investigation section and the ship was inspected. 800 kilograms of cocaine were found on board, which were to be thrown into the sea.
This extraordinary operation is the first of its kind in France due to the modus operandi and the unprecedented deployment of all the security forces' assets. All this made it possible to prevent for the first time a massive cocaine importation using the dumping technique, a system that was known to be used on the west coast of the country due to the occasional appearance of mud on the beaches, but which had not been able to be accredited until now.
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