from Cayenne to Paris, immersion on the new cocaine route

In Orly (Val-de-Marne), when a flight from Cayenne (Guyana) arrives, customs officers are on the lookout, looking for the slightest suspicious detail. Every morning, they ask the same questions. The routine search continues. and the customs officers fall on a suspicious white mass. 623 grams of cocaine have just been seized. The smuggler was transporting drugs for cash. “We have two flights a day here, and we have arrests almost every day.“, confides Olivier Gourdonthe head of customs controls.

To smuggle drugs, traffickers have imagination: walnut shell, cans of fish, or preserves. Last year, 512 mules were arrested at Cayenne airport, a veritable cocaine hub. The drug is a scourge on the island, because the inhabitants are poor and willingly accept easy money. This is the case of Tonio Pollux. Burdened with debt and with a dependent child, he gave in. He ended up being arrested and served a year in prison in Fleury-Mérogis (Essonne). An association now supports him in his reintegration.