French navy seizes $600M in cocaine as West Africa becomes trafficking hotspot

The French Navy has intercepted nearly 10 tonnes of cocaine aboard a stateless fishing vessel off the coast of West Africa, marking one of the year’s largest drug busts and highlighting the region’s growing role as a key transshipment route in the global cocaine trade.
The 9.6-tonne haul — valued at roughly $600 million — was seized during Operation Corymbe, France’s long-standing naval mission in the Gulf of Guinea. Acting on intelligence from British, French, and multinational partners, two French vessels boarded the suspect craft, uncovering the cocaine hidden aboard. “The seamless cooperation between national and international actors in the fight against narcotics made this remarkable seizure possible,” said France’s Maritime Prefect of the Atlantic. The UK’s National Crime Agency, France’s OFAST, and the European MAOC-N also contributed to the operation.
The bust is part of a broader pattern. At least 54 tonnes of cocaine have been seized in West African waters in 2025 alone. According to a recent article in The Africa Report, organized crime networks — especially Balkan syndicates — now dominate this “Highway 10” route, collaborating with Brazil’s PCC gang and exploiting weak maritime oversight in countries like Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Guinea-Bissau. As researcher Lucia Bird explains in a new report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), West Africa is no longer a detour but the main gateway for Europe’s cocaine imports.
“Operations by Western Balkan criminal networks have contributed to making West Africa a pivotal EU-bound cocaine transshipment node — and the region continues to grow in importance for the global cocaine trade,” Bird says. Drugs arrive by sea in non-containerized vessels, are repackaged onshore by front companies, and then shipped to Europe in legitimate cargo. While piracy has declined in the Gulf, drug trafficking is booming, fueling corruption and weakening regional security.