Seven people have been charged in the French overseas territory of Martinique in a sweeping anti-drug operation that yielded several tonnes of cocaine.

The suspects were in preventive detention on Friday over their alleged role in smuggling drugs from Guadeloupe, another French Caribbean territory, to mainland France.

A statement late Friday from the justice ministry and a police body fighting drug trafficking said “five million tonnes of drugs were sent by sea” to mainland France by the network.

A source close to the investigation told AFP on Saturday that several important cocaine seizures had been made from containers in several ports in mainland France.

One of them involved 1.3 tonnes found near the northeastern port of Le Havre at the end of last year, another source said.

The investigation has been going on for over a year.

Fourteen people were arrested Tuesday in Guadeloupe and the greater Paris region in connection with the case.