PARIS, May 28, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - The French navy has seized 2.4 tonnes of
cocaine from a Venezuelan fishing boat in the Atlantic, authorities said
Monday.

Acting on a tipoff from the customs department, a helicopter from the frigate
Ventose landed a team on the fishing boat about 1,500 kilometres northeast of
the Caribbean island of Martinique, France's Caribbean Armed Services
department said.

The boat, the crew and the cocaine were handed over to Venezuelan
authorities, the department said in a Facebook post.

The military department said it had now seized more than 12 tonnes of
narcotics this year. The Caribbean is taking on growing importance in the
trafficking of cocaine from South America to Europe and North America.

The 22.7 tonnes of cocaine intercepted in the region in 2022 was more than
five times the figure of a decade earlier.