Cocaine valued at US$144-m seized in Ghanian waters

The French navy has seized several tonnes of cocaine aboard a Togolese tugboat off the coast of Ghana in what appears to mark a new route for international drug traffickers, authorities said.

Six people were arrested in Lome after the Togolese-registered Pitea was intercepted by a French warship on Sunday, the Togolese interior ministry said.

French maritime authorities added that the tugboat, which was sailing from Venezuela and had seven men and one woman aboard, carried "more than two tonnes of cocaine".

The seizure was the result of a joint operation by Togolese and French narcotics agents based on information provided by Spanish intelligence, according to Togolese officials.

Preliminary analysis of the haul indicated that the cocaine was of high quality and would have a street value of 40 to 120 million euros in France, a source close to the investigation said.

French officials said the find illustrated a major change in trafficking patterns over recent years with large quantities of cocaine being rerouted because of a crackdown by US authorities from their Key West base in Florida.

Drug traffickers are increasingly abandoning the northern route and instead launching their operations from the "Amazonian triangle" in south America through eastward routes through west Africa, they said.

The cocaine is said to be unloaded and repackaged in west Africa before being shipped either by land or by sea to Europe.

Several similar operations were recently uncovered.

A few weeks ago, British officials working with their Ghanaian counterparts seized 700 kilograms of cocaine in Ghana, officials said.

Several people were arrested, including Britons and Colombians.