French customs officers board a ship as part of anti-drug traffic operation. Photo: Supplied / Douane France
A record 2.5 tonnes of cocaine were seized last week off New Caledonia, the French High Commission in New Caledonia said on Thursday.
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, New Caledonia's public prosecutor Yves Dupas said in a news release.
Nouméa-based French Navy Overseas patrol vessel Auguste Bennebig. Photo: supplied
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). They have been remanded in custody in New Caledonia for investigative purposes.
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.
French Polynesia customs officers seized 500 Kg of cocaine aboard a ship as part of anti-drug traffic operation. Photo: Supplied / Douane France
In mid-June 2025, French authorities in New Caledonia and French Polynesia said they had seized a total 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.
US market now saturated
"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 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.
They are to appear before a local Court on 22 July 2025.
The "find" was said to have taken place sometime in August 2024.
A strangely similar case of "drifting" drugs took place recently on Norfolk Island, late May 2025, where 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 bases.
