The French navy has seized nearly 10 tonnes of cocaine, worth $610m (£540m) off the coast of West Africa, French authorities have said.
Two French naval vessels operating as part of Operation Corymbe intercepted the enormous cocaine haul from an unflagged fishing vessel on Monday, acting on a tip-off from maritime intelligence, anti-drug authorities, and the British National Crime Agency.
The Corymbe naval mission has been deployed by France in the Gulf of Guinea since 1990 to ensure security in an area where piracy is fairly common.
The French navy stated that a total of 54 tonnes of drugs have been intercepted in the region since the beginning of the year.
France's Atlantic Maritime Prefecture noted that seamless cooperation by national and international actors in the fight against narcotics has led to the remarkable seizure of 9.6 tonnes of cocaine.
The Gulf of Guinea, off the western coast of Africa, has witnessed several drug busts in recent months and serves as a key transit point in global narcotics trafficking, particularly cocaine from South America to Europe.
This region was once regarded as the world's most dangerous for maritime piracy, even surpassing the waters off Somalia. Several Western nations have dispatched ships to support efforts to combat piracy in this area.
A record cocaine seizure of 10.7 tonnes was made by the French navy in March last year, marking the largest interception of the illegal trade off the West African coast.
