Rising Cocaine Trafficking from Guyana to France: Are Authorities Winning the Battle?

In Poitou, as in Orly, the number of arrests of people transporting cocaine has been in free fall for several months, according to the authorities. But these figures, seemingly encouraging, do not sign the end of the drug route between Guyana and mainland France.

There are more than 48,000 euros for resale. Much more, if its recipients planned to cut it. In all, 800 grams of cocaine distributed in “eggs”, small packets the size of a cocktail sausage, heat-sealed in a plastic envelope covered with cellophane. The goods were found in the stomach of a smuggler, arrested at the beginning of the year by the judicial police of Poitiers.

Since January, the man has been the only “mule” arrested on the drug route linking the borders of Guyana to Poitou. In 2022, the harvest of PJ investigators was much more impressive: 18 transporters and 15 kilos of cocaine over one year.

Does this mean that the traffic would have dried up? “We have very little hindsight”tempers Anthony De Freitas Meira, territorial director of the Limoges judicial police. “We had massive arrivals with the resumption of air traffic after the Covid.” In 2022, New Aquitaine customs recorded a historic record with 709 kilos of cocaine seized, +2669% compared to last year. “So would we now have a logical slowdown or would we see the development of other routes?” asks the policeman.

On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, in Guyana, the Cayenne prosecutor is convinced: “Paris airports tell us that the number of « mules » arriving at Orly from Cayenne is down sharply. We even had weeks without « mule » checked on arrival in mainland France”welcomes Yves Le Clair at the microphone of Guyane la Première.

According to the magistrate, the systematization of controls at Félix Eboué airport in Cayenne would have led traffickers to take other routes: “The Brazilians are reporting an excess of mules, the same in Santo Domingo and the West Indies”he says.

A ton of cocaine was intercepted by Guyanese customs, 80% of which at Félix Eboué airport, authorities said. In addition to systematic baggage checks, there is a body scanner, capable of identifying any packages taped to the body.

However, the device does not make it possible to check whether passengers may have ingested drugs before attempting to board. Such machines are subject to European law, as they are considered too intrusive.

In fact, the “mules” would be more and more numerous to take the risk of swallowing the goods to expel them once they arrive in the metropolis.

According to information from Le Parisien, “almost half” of people transporting cocaine arrested at Orly and Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airports had ingested the drug, compared to 30% last year. A journey at the risk of their lives in exchange for a few thousand euros.

Despite the risks, it is not the candidates for departure who are lacking. To be destined to serve as a “mule” for traffickers would not even be taboo in the most underprivileged communities of western French Guiana: “It’s trivialized. We talk about it very easily, it’s not an obstacle for anyone who wants to go there”testifies, in a study commissioned by the Ministry of National Education, a manager of the Maison des adolescents de Saint-Laurent-Maroni. For the young people of this border town between Guyana and Suriname, which has become a breeding ground for trafficking networks, trafficking is “a company like any other, certainly illegal but there are many others”concludes the social worker.

“It is absolutely impossible that a simple scanner and a few checks can solve the problem”deplores a lawyer, accustomed to defending these “mules”.

“The real barometer is the street”agrees the Poitevin lawyer Lee Takhedmit, who defended traffickers in the Clou-Bouchet district, known to be one of the most important deal points in Niort. “Cocaine is everywhere. In Niort and even in Bressuire or Partenay“, he observes. “Anyone can buy a kilo, as long as they have 25,000 euros in cash. On resale, he will make 60 or 70,000 euros, so more than 40,000 in profits. Even sold over a year, it makes him a good salary for the guy… So it’s not the repression that will prevent him.”

In two decades, the number of cocaine users has continued to grow: 1.6% of 18-64 year olds said they had taken it during the year in 2017, the latest data available. They were only 0.3% to do so in 2000.