The cocaine that caused a “white tide” on the French coast, and that caused a man to overdose, was Colombian

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

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

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

In November 2019, the authorities multiplied the warning notices concerning these bales, the size of a shoe box 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 “ingesting the product he found on the beach,” the prosecution reported Saturday.

At present, the reasons for this voluntary or accidental download are unknown. It is not even known who the carrier was (sailboat, merchant or submarine).

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

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

AFP.