Overview

• Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau declared the cocaine surge an “existential threat” after Customs and Ofast intercepted 1.7 tonnes of cocaine and 230 kilograms of methamphetamine aboard a sailing vessel near the Marquesas Islands.
• The leaked Ofast study estimates more than 200,000 street-level distributors coordinated by over 5,000 gang leaders and about 100 major importers from South America.
• Traffickers are using chemical dissolution in cosmetics, impregnated clothing and fake prosthetics to evade detection, outpacing conventional customs checks.
• International cartels—including the ’Ndrangheta, Mocro Maffia and Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel—have deepened their foothold in France, contributing to a 33% rise in gang-related violence over three years.
• France’s extensive coastline, overseas territories and the Roissy-Charles de Gaulle hub airport have made the country a strategic transshipment nexus, stretching anti-narcotics resources thin.