Record 2.5 Tonnes Of Cocaine Seized Off New Caledonia On Panama-Flagged Vessel Bound For Australia
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.
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.
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.
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Immediately after murdering Fernando Pereira and blowing up Greenpeace's ship the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbour, several of the French agents went on a ski holiday in New Zealand's South Island to celebrate. Such was the contempt the French had for the Kiwis and the abilities of our police to pursue them. How wrong they were. To mark the 40th anniversary of the French terrorist attack Little Island Press has published a revised edition of Eyes of Fire first released in 1986. A new prologue by former prime minister Helen Clark and a preface by Greenpeace's Bunny McDiarmid, along with an extensive postscript which bring us up to the present day, underline why the past is not dead; it's with us right now. 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The stupidity, howling incompetence and moronic lack of a sound strategic rationale behind the attack were only matched by the mendacity, the imperial hauteur and the racist contempt that lies at the heart of French policy in the Pacific to this very day. Thinking the Kiwi police would be no match for their élan, their savoir-faire and their panache, some of the killers hit the ski slopes to celebrate 'Mission Accompli'. Others fled to Norfolk Island aboard a yacht, the Ouvéa. Tracked there by the New Zealand police it was only with the assistance of our friends and allies, the Australians, that the agents were able to escape. Within days they sank their yacht at sea during a rendezvous with a French nuclear submarine and were able to return to France for medals and promotions. Two of the agents however were not so lucky. As everyone my age will recall Dominique Prieur and Alain Mafart were nabbed after a lightning fast operation by New Zealand police. With friends and allies like these, who needs enemies? We should recall that the French were our allies at the time. They decided, however, to stop the Rainbow Warrior from leading a flotilla of ships up to Mururoa Atoll in French Polynesia where yet another round of nuclear tests were scheduled. In other words: they bombed a peace ship to keep testing bombs. By 1995 France had detonated 193 nuclear bombs in the South Pacific. David Robie sees the bombing as 'a desperate attempt by one of the last colonial powers in the Pacic to hang on to the vestiges of empire by blowing up a peace ship so it could continue despoiling Pacic islands for the sake of an independent nuclear force.' The US, UK and Australia cold-shouldered New Zealand through this period and uttered not a word of condemnation against the French. Within two years we were frog-marched out of the ANZUS alliance with Australia and the U.S. because of our ground-breaking nuclear-free legislation. It was a blessing and the dawn of a period in which New Zealanders had an intense sense of national pride – a far cry from today when New Zealand politicians are being referred to the ICC in the Hague for war crimes associated with the Gaza genocide. The French State invented the term 'terrorism' I studied French History at university in France and did a paper called 'La France à la veille de révolution' (France on the eve of revolution). One of the chilling cultural memories is of the period from September 1793 to July 1794 was known as La Terreur. At the time the French state literally coined the term 'terrorisme' - with the blade of the guillotine dropping on neck after neck as the state tried to consolidate power through terror. But, as Robie points out, quoting law professor Roger S. Clark, we tend to use the term today to refer almost exclusively to non-state actors. With the US and Israel gunning down starving civilians in Gaza every day, with wave after wave of terror attacks being committed inside Iran and across the Middle East by Mossad, the CIA and MI6, we should amend this erroneous habit. The DGSE team who attached limpet mines to the Rainbow Warrior did so as psychopathic servants of the French State. Eyes of Fire: 'At the time, Prime Minister David Lange described the Rainbow Warrior attack as 'nothing more than a sordid act of international state-backed terrorism'.' Don't get me wrong. I am not 'anti-French'. I lived for years in France, had a French girlfriend, studied French history, language and literature. I even had friends in Wellington who worked at the French embassy. Curiously when I lived next to Premier House, the official residence of the prime minister, my other next door neighbour was a French agent who specialised in surveillance. Our houses backed onto Premier House. Quelle coïncidence. To his mild consternation I'd greet him with 'Salut, mon espion favori.' (Hello, my favourite spy). What I despise is French colonialism, French racism, and what the French call magouillage. I don't know a good English word for it … it is a mix of shenanigans, duplicity, artful deception to achieve unscrupulous outcomes that can't be publicly avowed. In brief: what the French attempted in Auckland in 1985. Robie recounts in detail the lying, smokescreens and roadblocks that everyone from President Mitterrand through to junior officials put in the way of the New Zealand investigators. Mitterrand gave Prime Minister David Lange assurances that the culprits would be brought to justice. The French Embassy in Wellington said at the time: 'In no way is France involved. The French Government doesn't deal with its opponents in such ways'. It took years for the bombshell to explode that none other than Mitterrand himself had ordered the terrorist attack on New Zealand and Greenpeace! We the people of the Pacific We, the people of the Pacific, owe a debt to Greenpeace and all those who were part of the Rainbow Warrior, including author David Robie. We must remember the crime and call it by its name: state terrorism. The French attempted to escape justice, deny involvement and then welched on the terms of the agreement negotiated with the help of the United Nations Secretary-General. A great way to honour the sacrifice of those who stood up for justice, who stood for peace and a nuclear-free Pacific, and who honoured our own national identity would be to buy David Robie's excellent book. I'll give the last word to former Prime Minister Helen Clark: 'This is the time for New Zealand to link with the many small and middle powers across regions who have a vision for a world characterised by solidarity and peace and which can rise to the occasion to combat the existential challenges it faces – including nuclear weapons, climate change, and artificial intelligence. If our independent foreign policy is to mean anything in the mid-2020s, it must be based on concerted diplomacy for peace and sustainable development.' You cannot sink a rainbow. Eugene Doyle
