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Seven charged after giant French anti-drug operation

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

Published: 11 June 2023 13:55 CEST
Seven charged after giant French anti-drug operation
French customs inspectors inspect the engine room of a container ship at Fort-de-France commercial harbour on the French Caribbean island of Martinique in 2022. Photo: STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP.

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.

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CRIME

Teens charged in France over plot to attack Jewish targets: judicial source

French prosecutors have charged a 19-year-old man and a youth in the Paris region with planning a "terrorist" attack on Jewish targets, a judicial source told AFP on Friday.

Published: 22 June 2024 12:47 CEST
Teens charged in France over plot to attack Jewish targets: judicial source

While no details on the pair have been released, French anti-terrorist investigators have expressed increased concern over the young age of some suspects detained in recent months for planning militant attacks.

The 19-year-old has been charged with “terrorist conspiracy” to commit attacks and the “acquisition and possession of arms for a terrorist enterprise,” said the judicial source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

READ ALSO: Anti-Semitism fears stalk Jewish voters’ choice in France

The youth aged under 18 was detained on June 13, the source said.

The pair made contact on social media and were planning a “a violent action notably aiming at Jewish targets,” said the source without giving details on the plot.

Anti-terrorism investigators say a growing number of youths have been held in recent months for preparing attacks.

READ ALSO: French election breakdown: TV debates, polling latest and anti-Semitism

“This is a necessarily worrying phenomenon,” senior anti-terrorist prosecutor Olivier Christen said at an evidentiary hearing on Wednesday.

French politicians have also condemned a growing number of attacks on the country’s Jewish community, the biggest outside Israel and the United States.

Outrage has been expressed over the rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in a park in the Paris suburbs last Saturday. Two 13-year-old boys have been charged with rape and making anti-Semitic insults.

Several protest rallies have been held in Paris and other French cities over the case which comes as France prepares for a national election in which the far-right National Rally party is tipped to make major gains. 

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