Bordeaux: surveillance and cocaine seizure lead to international money-laundering network
Bordeaux police dismantled a fund-recycling operation stemming from drug trafficking, with connections in Mauritania and Belgium.
Bordeaux: surveillance and cocaine seizure lead to international money-laundering network
On 9 June 2026, a police operation ended a fund-recycling operation stemming from the drug trade. Investigations showed that this organisation operated from West Africa and used a vehicle export firm in Belgium to launder its proceeds.
It all began in 2024, when investigators from the Ofast in Bordeaux opened a judicial inquiry. They targeted a network of dealers active in the Gironde metropolis, who were supplied with narcotics from Paris. Discreet surveillance was put in place and continued for months.
In February 2025, police intercepted two vehicles. In one of them, a hidden compartment contained 50 kg of cocaine. This discovery, made under the authority of Bordeaux court, was only one piece of a much larger puzzle.
Very quickly, the observation teams discovered an elaborate process. Suspicious financial flows passed between France, Mauritania and Belgium. A vehicle sales company based in Brussels served as a front to transform illicit profits into apparently legitimate money.
The investigation demonstrated how a local case — the arrest of traffickers in the Bordeaux region — could reveal a network of global scale, thanks to cooperation between French and Belgian services.
Source: Le Figaro
Source: Le Figaro