Even if the beaches of Guadeloupe are sometimes the scene of the arrival of boats transporting drugs in particular, the seizure on the night of Friday January 5th to Saturday January 6th is still surprising. A total of 366 kg of cocaine was intercepted in the parking lot of a beach in Gosier and six men were arrested and taken into police custody, the Pointe-à-Pitre public prosecutor's office announced on Monday, January 8.
The suspects were checked on Petit Havre beach, a popular spot for tourists and residents of the island, while “loading bags, such as bales, into the trunks of two vehicles,” the Pointe prosecutor said in a news release. à-Pitre, Caroline Calbo. “Analysis of the contents of the bales confirmed that they were cocaine with a total weight of 366kg,” she said.
The suspects “certainly arrived by sea” and were transporting “about fifteen bales,” a source familiar with the case told Agence France-Presse (AFP). These people, whose “behavior was suspicious,” were arrested around 9 p.m. local time (2 a.m. Saturday, Paris time), the same source explained. These were “pretty young men, three of them from Guadeloupe and three from the Caribbean or South America,” we added.
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Continuation of controls
“Even if we know that it is a well-known method for drug traffickers to bring drugs into Guadeloupe, this is an exception for people who come off the beach with so much cocaine,” said Christophe Gavat, territorial director of the National Police of Guadeloupe (DTPN). . , interviewed by AFP. Checks will continue, he added.
Police detention, which can last up to ninety-six hours in such cases, “has been extended and is still ongoing,” said Ms. Calbo. The judicial investigation was entrusted to Ofast, the anti-drug office, which reports to the prosecutor's office of the specialized interregional jurisdiction (Jirs) of Fort-de-France, the prosecutor's press release said.
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