Cocaine that caused a “white tide” on the French coast, and that caused an overdose of a man, was Colombian

The cocaine that caused a “white tide” in 2019 on the Atlantic coast of France and caused the death by overdose of a man, came from Colombia, the prosecution reported on Saturday.

“The origin of the narcotics could be identified in a production area in northern Colombia. The purity of the analyzed products was between 80.5 and 90% “, said Philippe Astruc, prosecutor of the city of Rennes (west), in a statement that gave an account of the investigation a year after the discovery of the first bales. In total 1,600 kg of cocaine were discovered.

The investigations, carried out by the investigative services, in collaboration with the United States (DEA), Dutch and British authorities, made it possible to determine that these packages came from the same unloading intervened off the coast of Bordeaux in September 2019, according to the same source.

In November 2019, the authorities multiplied the warning notices regarding these bales, the size of a shoebox, and perfectly sealed with cellophane, which appeared along several hundred kilometers of the French Atlantic coast.

Despite this, a 35-year-old man died of an overdose in Saint-Nazaire, on December 16, 2019, due to “ingestion of product that he had found on the beach,” the prosecution reported on Saturday.

At the moment, the reasons for this download, whether voluntary or accidental, are unknown. Nor is it known who the carrier was (sailboat, freighter, or a submarine).

“Taking into account that a part of the cargo was lost at sea (a third or a quarter), the initial volume of product can be described as important,” the statement said, adding that the investigation was still open.

Most of the cocaine comes from three major producing countries: Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. Europe is the second world market, after North America.

AFP.