A French frigate has intercepted a big consignment of cocaine from a stateless trawler off the coast of West Africa, marking the latest development in the increased European effort to stop drug shipments at sea.
The alleged smuggling operation was first discovered during an investigation by the Brazilian federal police, the British National Crime Agency (NCA), and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), with assistance from EU agencies. In the middle of September, the 20-meter fishing vessel sailed from the coast of Brazil towards the coast of West Africa. The path indicated that Europe, where retail cocaine prices are high, was the ultimate destination market.
The French Navy frigate Ventôse moved to intercept the fishing boat as it approached West Africa on Thursday, September 21. A boarding party from Ventôse intercepted the boat at dawn with assistance from a Falcon 50 maritime patrol aircraft and an onboard Dauphin helicopter. It was lawful to conduct a high-seas boarding because the ship was stateless. More than 2.4 tonnes of cocaine were found and taken off the trawler by the team.
The French Navy's continued presence in the Gulf of Guinea allowed for the interception. France maintains one or two patrol vessels in the GoG at (nearly) all times, assisted by maritime patrol planes, due to the weak capacity of the coastal governments to combat piracy and maritime crime in the area. According to the EU's "coordinated maritime presence" policy, which permits member states to conduct maritime law enforcement operations in other countries, the deployment is in line with this policy.
South American producers are increasingly shipping cocaine to European consumers via the Brazil-to-West Africa route. Traffic is transferring to less rigorously regulated channels, like ship-to-boat transfers at sea and second-tier EU container ports, as customs agents in the gateway ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam become more skilled at seizing multi-tonne goods from containers. According to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, the volume of trafficking via the dogleg route from Brazil to West Africa to Europe is likewise increasing quickly. More than 27 tonnes of containerized cocaine were shipped from Santos to West Africa in 2019, up from 435 kg in 2014.
-By Elodie Aimee|thetransporteronline24|France
