Four alleged smugglers had been arrested by French navy after a 1.4 tonnes of cocaine has been intercepted off Tonga.
According to Radio New Zealand, a New Caledonian newspaper said the operation was launched a week ago when a navy vessel was sent out in a joint mission with police and customs officials.
“The report of Les Nouvelles Caledoniennes gave no details of where the yacht was caught but it said it happened several days ago and four people were detained”.
“The navy vessel, Le Vendémiaire, returned to its Noumea base this morning, with dozens of masked military men guarding the offloading of the drugs which have been moved to an undisclosed destination for destruction”.
The Tonga police has confirmed that they and their Transnational crime squad have no knowledge of the operation, One News reported.
The seizure comes about five years after the Tongan authorities had seized more than 200 kilograms of cocaine from a yacht that had run aground at an uninhabited atoll in Vava’u, Tonga.
