France warns ‘narco-tourists’ after coke washes ashore

French authorities warned on Friday about "narco-tourism" on northern Channel beaches after news of more than two tonnes of cocaine washing ashore drew dozens of beachcombers, some equipped with quad bikes.

Published: 3 March 2023 17:38 CET

France warns 'narco-tourists' after coke washes ashore

(Photo by FRED TANNEAU / AFP)

Locals in villages along the Normandy coast have described an influx of unfamiliar people in luxury cars and 4x4s who have been scouring the sand this week.

Local prosecutor Philippe Astruc issued a public warning on Friday about the risks of taking part in what he described as “narco tourism”.

“The act of taking possession of one of these bundles and transporting it is a crime that carries a punishment of up to 10 years in prison,” he told reporters.

Furthermore, the cocaine posed a serious health risk because it was likely to be 80-90 percent pure, far stronger than anything usually sold by street dealers, he added.

“At the present time, we don’t know the purity of this substance,” he added, but if it was the usual strength of imported cocaine then it could be “fatal” if consumed.

He stressed that a young man had died in 2019 after taking cocaine that had washed up along the west coast of France in the previous major incident of this kind.

4x4s, new cars, quad bikes

So far, several batches of watertight packages have been found in villages such as Neville-sur-mer, Omonville-la-Rogue and Reville, with the total street value of the cocaine estimated at €150 million.

“The sea brings us many things, but this is obviously very unusual,” the mayor of Reville, Yves Asseline, told the Parisien newspaper. “We’ve seen people arriving in 4x4s, brand new cars or with quad bikes on the beach, sometimes at dawn with head torches.”

Armed police were patrolling the beaches regularly with the help of a helicopter which was flying low over the water to spot any suspect packages in the sea.

Investigators were still uncertain where the cocaine came from — whether traffickers threw it overboard deliberately to avoid arrest, or whether it came loose from their boats in heavy weather, sources close to the investigation told AFP.

On Wednesday, the government said that French police had seized 27 tonnes of cocaine last year, a five-fold increase compared with the level 10 years ago, as Europe faces a surge in trafficking and use of the drug.

Seizures were up five percent last year compared with 2021, according to interior ministry figures, with more than half of the narcotic transiting via the West Indies and France’s poverty-stricken South American region of Guiana.

As the illegal trade has swelled, most cocaine now enters Europe through northern ports like Rotterdam, Antwerp, Hamburg and France’s Le Havre.

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The French Jewish community, the third largest in the world, has for months been on edge in the face of a growing number of attacks and desecrations of memorials.

“National police in Rouen neutralised early this morning an armed individual who clearly wanted to set fire to the city’s synagogue,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Police responded at 6.45 am to reports of “fire near the synagogue”, a police source said.

A source close to the case told AFP the man “was armed with a knife and an iron bar, he approached police, who fired. The individual died”.

“It is not only the Jewish community that is affected. It is the entire city of Rouen that is bruised and in shock,” Rouen Mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol wrote on X.

He made clear there were no other victims other than the attacker.

Two separate investigations have been opened, one into the fire at the synagogue and another into the circumstances of the death of the individual killed by the police, Rouen prosecutors said.

Such an investigation by France’s police inspectorate general is automatic whenever an individual is killed by the police.

The man threatened a police officer with a knife and the latter used his service weapon, said the Rouen prosecutor.

The dead man was not immediately identified, a police source said.

Asked by AFP, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office said that it is currently assessing whether it will take up the case.

France has the largest Jewish community of any country after Israel and the United States, as well as Europe’s largest Muslim community.

There have been tensions in France in the wake of the October 7th attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel, followed by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Red hand graffiti was painted onto France’s Holocaust Memorial earlier this week, prompted anger including from President Emmanuel Macron who condemned “odious anti-Semitism”.

“Attempting to burn a synagogue is an attempt to intimidate all Jews. Once again, there is an attempt to impose a climate of terror on the Jews of our country. Combating anti-Semitism means defending the Republic,” Yonathan Arfi, the president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF). wrote on X.

France was hit from 2015 by a spate of Islamist attacks that also hit Jewish targets. There have been isolated attacks in recent months and France’s security alert remains at its highest level.