The French Navy has intercepted a vessel carrying approximately 678kg of cocaine in the Caribbean, according to France's Armed Forces Minister Catherine Vautrin. The minister announced on X that the drugs were seized and handed over to authorities in Barbados.
This operation comes amid heightened efforts by the United States and other nations to combat drug trafficking. In a separate incident on February 2, French authorities seized 174 bales of cocaine, weighing 4.24 tonnes, off the coast of French Polynesia.
France, which maintains overseas territories in the Caribbean and Latin America, has adopted a more aggressive stance against drug trafficking in recent months. A December report from the French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction indicated that cocaine has surpassed cannabis as the most prevalent illegal drug in France.
Gang-related drug crime is increasing in France. During a visit to Colombia, the world's largest cocaine producer, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot launched a multi-pronged plan to combat the surge in drug trafficking affecting Latin America, the Caribbean, and increasingly Europe. Paris is also advocating for a European Union sanctions regime to address the issue.
