The French Navy has seized a cache of 524 kilos of cocaine found on a fishing boat with a base port in Vigo during an operation carried out on December 24 in French Polynesia and which has been settled with 14 crew members detained, all South Americans, as reported this Sunday by the French National Gendarmerie in a statement.
The boarding of the fishing vessel ‘Raymi’ began the day before south of the exclusive economic zone of French Polynesia and was carried out by operatives of an overseas support and assistance ship (BSAOM) of the French Navy, the ‘Bougainville’.
The operation has been completed with the seizure of the stash and 8,000 euros in cash, and the arrest of 14 South American crew members of the ‘Raymi’, according to the statement, which does not provide further details about their identity.
The ship, the detainees and the cargo arrived this past Saturday in Papeete, the capital of French Polynesia, at the culmination of the most prominent anti-drug operation on the high seas since 2017, according to French security forces.
From now on, an investigation will begin under the authority of the Public Ministry (the Prosecutor’s Office) of Papeete, and with the participation of the Gendarmerie of French Polynesia and the local section of the Anti-Narcotics Office, concludes the statement from the Gendarmerie.
