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Bales of cocaine on the deck of the surveillance frigate “Germinal”.
MARIGOT--The surveillance frigate Germinal, on patrol in the Caribbean Sea, intervened on a suspicious fast boat without nationality identification on February 1. The go-fast fled as the Germinal approached, while dumping bales overboard.
Pursued, the boat and its four occupants were finally stopped and 19 bundles were recovered from the sea. The latter were found to be positive for cocaine, representing a total weight of 680 kilograms. On the instruction of the Fort-de-France prosecutor, the drugs, the boat and the accused were handed over to the Martinique anti-drug office OFAST on January 31.
This operation was carried out with the support of the Regional Security System, an international organisation working for the defence and security of the Eastern Caribbean, and was conducted under the direction of the préfet of Martinique, the Government’s delegate for State action at sea, and the Commander of the Antilles maritime zone.
This first seizure of the year 2022 for the French armed forces (FAA) represents a loss for the drug traffickers of 47 million euros at final resale to European consumers (13 million euros if this merchandise was destined for the Caribbean).
2021 marked the 20th year of FAA involvement against drug trafficking at sea and was also a record year with more than nine tons of cocaine removed from the market.
