French customs authorities seized almost 3.9 tonnes of cocaine, valued at roughly €225 million (US$261.45 million), from a container of plastic waste that arrived at the northern port of Dunkirk from Ghana on Thursday, September 10.
The cocaine was concealed inside the container, which was reportedly bound partly for Antwerp in Belgium, according to France’s organised crime prosecutor’s office.
The seizure followed a targeted operation by the judicial police against a criminal network suspected of orchestrating the shipment. The cocaine has since been destroyed, while prosecutors have opened an investigation into the shipment and the network allegedly responsible.
The investigation focuses on offences including the organised importation of narcotics and participation in a criminal association, both punishable by up to 10 years in prison under French law.
This operation underscores European authorities’ continued efforts to disrupt international drug trafficking networks and intercept large consignments of cocaine entering the continent.
Investigators expect this seizure to feed into a broader probe into the movement of the cocaine from Ghana to France and the alleged network that organised the shipment.
