Three Britons arrested in France's biggest ever cocaine bust
Three Britons are among nine people arrested after French police seized almost 1.4 tonnes of cocaine – mainland France's biggest ever haul of the drug.
French Interior minister Manuel Valls talks to journalists in front of cocaine seized by French police Photo: AFP/Getty Images
By Henry Samuel, in Paris
2:40PM BST 23 Sep 2013
The cocaine – with a street value of around 160 million pounds – was found stuffed inside 31 suitcases and is believed to have been, at least in part, brought into the country on an Air France flight from Venezuela.
The "luggage" was registered under false names that did not correspond to passengers on the flight to Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport, police sources said.
Some 900kg of the drugs were seized in the airport while the remainder was taken from a lorry en route to Luxembourg, according to Le Monde.
A police source said the drugs were destined for the 'Ndrangeta, the Italian mafia based in Calabria that is believed to control up to 80 per cent of all cocaine imports to Europe.
Three unnamed British men and three Italians were arrested in Paris, according to Venezuelan justice and interior minister Miguel Rodriguez, who said three Police National Guard officers were also arrested in the Venezuelan capital Caracas.
Speaking on Venezuelan state television channel VTV, Mr Rodriguez said intelligence agents had "detained a first lieutenant from the anti-drug unit of the Bolivarian National Guard" along with two National Guard sergeants.
It is "pretty clear" that there were accomplices working with the airline, he added.
"How can the cocaine shipment reach France and it gets taken out without going through the normal controls?" he asked.
Over the next days agents will scrutinise footage taken from security cameras at the Simon Bolivar International Airport and interrogate personnel that work in the airport luggage area, he said.
There was no immediate French confirmation of the nationalities of the individuals being held and questioned.
French officials said the seizure was made earlier this month but that no details had been released until this weekend for "operational reasons".
Air France said an internal investigation had been launched to find out how the drugs were smuggled on board.
"Pending the results of these investigations, immediate measures have been taken to enhance our checks of baggage and goods on departure from certain sensitive destinations," the airline said in a statement.
French police Commander Mohamed Douhane, head of the Syngergie-officers police union, said an investigation had been launched to work out "if there was complicity either within Air France or inside the departure or arrival airports." France's interior minister Manuel Valls said the cocaine had a wholesale value of 50 million euros, while experts said its street value could be as high as 200 million euros.
"This marks the biggest seizure of cocaine ever made in mainland France as part of a judicial investigation," Mr Valls said this weekend.
The seizure was the result of cooperation between security forces in France, the Netherlands, Spain and Britain.
Cocaine comes from coca leaves grown in countries like Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. Venezuela does not produce cocaine, according to United Nations monitors, but drug traffickers are increasingly using its territory to smuggle drugs into other nations.
