French Polynesian authorities carried out the naval operation in the Pacific / The MAOC-N National Police, Peruvian authorities and the Australian AFP cooperated in the action / Thirteen Ecuadorians and one Colombian, arrested
When a market becomes saturated, prices fall, and profit margins are lower. This is well known by the large groups dedicated to international cocaine trafficking, who, aware that Europe is flooded, have set their eyes on a much more lucrative market: Australia. The country, where the price per kilogram of this drug sometimes reaches 200,000 euros (in Galicia it is being sold at 20,000), was the destination of the Raymi fishing boat, a ship based in the port of Vigo inside which 524 kilos of cocaine were seized. Colombia revealed in 2024 the opening of a cocaine route between South America and Australia through the Pacific, and this vessel was in that transit.
The operation was carried out in a combined way by the Central Udyco of the National Police Corps and the OFAST of the Police Nationale of France, with the support of the French Navy with competences in French Polynesia, where the vessel boarded.
Peruvian authorities, on the South American side, and the Maritime Operations Analysis Center on Drug Trafficking (MAOC-N) based in Lisbon, from Europe, provided relevant information on drug transport. The Australian Federal Police and the United States also cooperated in an action that was authorized by the Customs Surveillance Service and the Central Narcotics Brigade on December 19, all with the knowledge of the Anti-Drug Prosecutor's Office of the National High Court.
The French agents, with the mandatory authorization, boarded the Raymi from the Bougainville, a Navy ship, found 11 packages containing the 524 kilos of drugs, as well as about 8,000 euros in cash. All fourteen crew members were detained. Thirteen of them are of Ecuadorian nationality, while the rest is Colombian, as this newspaper was able to learn. Now the investigation process on the fishing vessel, whose base is Vigo, is starting, while France will ask Spain for jurisdiction over the detainees.
When a market becomes saturated, prices fall, and profit margins are lower. This is well known by the large groups dedicated to international cocaine trafficking, who, aware that Europe is flooded, have set their eyes on a much more lucrative market: Australia. The country, where the price per kilogram of this drug sometimes reaches 200,000 euros (in Galicia it is being sold at 20,000), was the destination of the Raymi fishing boat, a ship based in the port of Vigo inside which 524 kilos of cocaine were seized. Colombia revealed in 2024 the opening of a cocaine route between South America and Australia through the Pacific, and this vessel was in that transit.
The operation was carried out in a combined way by the Central Udyco of the National Police Corps and the OFAST of the Police Nationale of France, with the support of the French Navy with competences in French Polynesia, where the vessel boarded.
Peruvian authorities, on the South American side, and the Maritime Operations Analysis Center on Drug Trafficking (MAOC-N) based in Lisbon, from Europe, provided relevant information on drug transport. The Australian Federal Police and the United States also cooperated in an action that was authorized by the Customs Surveillance Service and the Central Narcotics Brigade on December 19, all with the knowledge of the Anti-Drug Prosecutor's Office of the National High Court.
The French agents, with the mandatory authorization, boarded the Raymi from the Bougainville, a Navy ship, found 11 packages containing the 524 kilos of drugs, as well as about 8,000 euros in cash. All fourteen crew members were detained. Thirteen of them are of Ecuadorian nationality, while the rest is Colombian, as this newspaper was able to learn. Now the investigation process on the fishing vessel, whose base is Vigo, is starting, while France will ask Spain for jurisdiction over the detainees.