French navy shoots drug-smuggling go-fast boat
by AFP Staff Writers
Brest, France (AFP) Oct 21, 2025

The French navy opened fire on a go-fast boat in the Atlantic to immobilise it, arrest its crew and seize 2.4 tonnes of cocaine on board worth $150 million, authorities said on Tuesday.

The forceful interception happened on Friday night of last week, off the Portuguese archipelago of Madeira, located in the ocean off Morocco, according to France's maritime prefecture for the Atlantic.

The operation was carried out in coordination with US and UK police, and in cooperation with Portuguese and Spanish authorities, the prefecture said in a statement.

A navy warship, deploying a helicopter it carries, along with a navy surveillance plane and a French coast guard vessel were used to bring the drug-smuggling boat to a halt.

"The use of force was necessary to immobilise the go-fast because it refused to obey instructions to stop," the prefecture said in a statement.

A total of 2,373 kilos of cocaine were found and seized on the boat -- worth an estimated 128 million euros ($150 million).

The crew were arrested. The statement did not give their number or nationalities.

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