Massive cocaine and meth haul seized on yacht in French Polynesia worth €331 million

RNZ News

2 days ago

Seized drugs onboard include 232kg of methamphetamine and 1,646kg of cocaine.
Photo:
Comgend Polynésie française OFAST
Authorities in French Polynesia are claiming another "historic" drug haul for a total €331 million street value.
The catch initially took place on 14 July in Nuku Hiva (Marquesas Islands, about 1,400km North of Tahiti), aboard a transiting sailboat travelling from Mexico and believed to be headed to Australia via the Kingdom of Tonga.
What authorities immediately found was 900kg of cocaine and 180kg of methamphetamines.
But the seized yacht, under French Navy and gendarmerie escort, was since repatriated to the main island of Tahiti and the capital Pape'ete, where it was completely searched and dismantled.
This resulted in the discovery, with assistance from sniffer dog units, of a further 714.1kg of cocaine and 49.8kg of methamphetamines concealed in the boat's structure, bringing the final count to 1,646.8kg of cocaine and 232.4kg of methamphetamines.
The seized ship also contained 11 Glock pistols and 22 bullet ammunition magazines.
Photo:
Comgend Polynésie française OFAST
In addition to the narcotics, 11 Glock semi‑automatic pistols and 24 ammunition magazines were also found.
French Home Affairs Minister Bruno Retailleau described the haul as a first in French Polynesia's history.
He hailed participating law enforcement agencies (French customs, anti-narcotics unit "OFAST" and gendarmerie)
The three men onboard (a German skipper and two Dutch nationals), remain in custody, local Public Prosecutor Solène Belaouar said in a statement at the weekend.
"This shipment was not for French Polynesia", head of French Polynesia's Customs Serge Puccetti told local media.
He said intelligence shared between French authorities and regional law enforcement agencies such as the US, Australia and New Zealand has now clearly established the Pacific as a major transit area between narcotic-production from South America and one of its major new markets, Australia.
In terms of trans-national organised traffic, "Currently, we have a Polynesian connection, the Americans are working on an American connection which itself is linked to this Polynesian network. So we are working on what we call 'mirror' investigations. We establish connections, we share a lot of intelligence", Puccetti said.
He said narco-traffic in the Pacific, just like elsewhere (Europe, Africa, Atlantic ocean), was now multi-faceted and implied all kinds of transport modes: by air, sea, onboard containers, sailboats.
"On each of these vectors, we are vigilant", he said.
French Polynesia's five archipelagos are widespread over a surface of some 5.5 millions square kilometres, an area equivalent to that of the whole European continent.
The largest drugs catch in French Polynesia, until now, was on Christmas Eve 2004, when 524kg of cocaine were seized aboard a Spanish-flagged vessel with 14 crew members from Columbia and Ecuador onboard.
In March 2019, another Papeete-based French Navy vessel, Prairial, in collaboration with the US Joint Interagency Task Force - South intercepted a fishing vessel off the coast of Nicaragua with 766kg of cocaine on board.
In February 2025, in the face of an increasing presence and consumption of methamphetamines (dubbed "ice") in French Polynesia now affecting "one in ten" inhabitants, President Moetai Brotherson sounded the alarm bell and called for urgent assistance from France, saying the issue now required to be made a matter of "national priority".
In July 2025, French Polynesia's Territorial Assembly (parliament) unanimously backed a motion to support stronger measures to fight against the addictive drug, with an available budget of around two million Euros.
Another narcotics-related project currently mooted would be to set up a sniffer dogs training centre, with French assistance.
The ship contained 1,878kg of narcotics, including 232kg of methamphetamine and 1,646kg of cocaine.
Photo:
Comgend Polynésie française OFAST
French Polynesia, as well as other Pacific countries and territories (Samoa, Fiji, Tonga), has been identified as a major transit point of the so-called "Drugs Highway" from North and South America (the United States, Mexico, Columbia, Ecuador, Panama) to major markets such as Australia, New Zealand and Asia.
In the other direction, labs in South-east Asia are also using Pacific islands such as Palau or Papua New Guinea as transit points to ship opium-based and methamphetamines to the US market.
In June 2025, a record 2.5 tonnes of cocaine were seized off New Caledonia.
The operation was conducted on 25 June by the Nouméa-based French Navy overseas patrol vessel Auguste Bennebig, some 400 nautical miles off Nouméa, with aerial support from a reconnaissance "Gardian" Falcon Jet from the French Navy.
Approximately 2.5 tonnes of cocaine were found in the Panama-flagged vessel named SM Dante, which had left Peru in May and was headed to Australia.
The drugs were packed in about fifty individual bags.
Investigators believe the drug shipment was prepared to be despatched aboard small outboard vessels near the target coasts of Australia, following a well-established scenario known as "rip-off".
Aboard the ship were seven crew members, from Portugal (2) and Ecuador (5).
French authorities say that since 2012, they have intercepted six vessels transporting drugs and narcotics, mainly cocaine.
However, the latest operation beats the previous records of 578kg of cocaine seized in October 2017 and 750kg in August 2013 on ships travelling from Panama to Australia, as well as two captures of 1.4 tonnes on the same route in February and July 2017.
In mid-June 2025, authorities in New Caledonia and French Polynesia jointly claimed a cumulated catch score of over 500kg of cocaine in April and May 2025, including 67kg for New Caledonia alone.
They said those operations were mostly conducted in collaboration and based on intelligence-sharing with regional forces such as Australia's Border Force, New Zealand Customs and the United States Homeland Security Investigations.
"In terms of cocaine consumption, the US market is now saturated. That's why traffickers are searching for new markets, Europe and, in the Pacific region, Australia and New Zealand", New Caledonia's Divisional Head of Customs Hervé Matho told local media.
Recently, in New Caledonia, a cocaine distribution network, albeit atypical, was identified and stopped between the capital Nouméa and the Isle of Pines.
About ten people were arrested for dealing what they say they found "drifting" bags that had washed ashore on their small island: over 42kg of cocaine.
The "find" was said to have taken place sometime in August 2024.
In a strangely similar case of "drifting" drugs, on Norfolk Island, late May 2025, a 40kg package containing cocaine also washed up on a beach, where it was later found by tourists.
In June 2025, a report delivered to New Zealand's Associate Police Minister Casey Costello sent a strong warning signal that the Pacific Islands were seriously targeted by transnational organised crime, whose operators are using its waters as a "corridor" for drug shipments between production and consumption centres.