The nets of the fight against drugs are closing in on traffickers.
Eight people were indicted and placed in pre-trial detention after several large cocaine seizures off the coast of the Antilles, Fort-de-France prosecutor Clarisse Taron announced on Saturday.
“Eight individuals, in two proceedings, were indicted for violating the legislation on narcotics in an organized gang.
They were placed in pre-trial detention,” said the head of the prosecution during a press briefing.
Important seizures
These legal proceedings come after seizures at sea of a total of 8.3 tonnes of cocaine by the French authorities in the Antilles, or in a few days more than half of the quantity seized during the whole of 2023 (11 tonnes).
In total, 17 people were intercepted as part of the fight against drugs between February 20 and 29.
Among them, a Russian, two British, a South African, Colombians and Spaniards were interviewed by investigators in Martinique before being brought to justice and incarcerated.
The first four were on a Panama-flagged fishing vessel in possession of 3.1 tonnes of white powder.
They were intercepted nearly 2,000 km from the Antilles.
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The four others were sailing 600 km southeast of Martinique on a sailboat loaded with a ton of cocaine when they were boarded on Monday February 26.
Furthermore, six Venezuelan nationals and three tonnes of cocaine were handed over to Venezuela, which asserted its jurisdiction.
They were arrested in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on February 22.
Three other suspected drug transporters were still in custody on Saturday in the premises of the anti-narcotics office.
On board their skiff, they were transporting a ton of cocaine when they were stopped off the coast of Dominica, a small state north of Martinique.
“This is the result of an improvement and an increase in work and investigation techniques,” welcomed Jean-Christophe Bouvier, the prefect of Martinique.