French Naval Vessel Intercepts Drug Smugglers off the coast of Liberia

Late Thursday, January 31, 2008, a French naval vessel intercepted the Blue Atlantic during a routine security check on the high seas off the coast of Liberia. On board of the Blue Atlantic, naval officers found 92 barrels of cocaine. The Blue Atlantic was flying the flag of Liberia while its crew of nine were Ghanaians. The French Navy towed the Blue Atlantic to Liberia where its crew was turned over to the Liberian police. West Africa, has increasingly become a point favored by Latin American drug cartels because of weak local law enforcement and a largely unsupervised coastline. The drugs are shipped across the Atlantic and then onto markets in Europe.