The French Navy has sized more than six metric tons of cocaine from a cargo ship in the Gulf of Guinea.
The merchant ship was underway from South American when it was intercepted by the French Navy ship Dixmude on Sunday, March 21, 2021.
Photos of the cargo ship identify it as the Saint Kitts and Nevis-registered MV Najlan, a 4,400 DWT ship in built in 1989. AIS data shows the vessel departed Rio De Janeiro, Brazil on March 5.
The operation was conducted based on intelligence from the French anti-drug agency OFAST, the Dutch police, EUROPOL, and authorities in Brazil. The French Navy reports that the ship was under close surveillance since it departed South America.
The seizure is the largest in the region since 2019 when nearly ten tons of cocaine was seized from a Panama-flagged ship with eleven Russian crew members in Cape Verde.
