Drug trafficking in the Caribbean-Guyana: Fewer mules, explosion of suspect parcels in 2025
Air freight now exceeds passengers in volume of seized cocaine. The interregional customs authority presents a 2025 balance sheet showing an increase in parcels.
Cocaine by parcel: a new dominant vector from the Caribbean and Guyana
The Antilles-Guyana interregional customs directorate presented its 2025 annual balance sheet on Friday, 10 April at a press conference in Fort-de-France. According to la1ere.franceinfo.fr, the transportation of cocaine by air freight "from individual to individual" from Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint-Martin and Guyana to mainland France "has increased substantially" and now exceeds the passenger route, both in number of seizures and in total quantity.
In 2024, customs officers had intercepted 2.1 tonnes of cocaine in these four overseas territories, of which 578 kilograms in Martinique. Of this Martinique total, 268 kilograms were transported by "mules" or concealed in luggage at Fort-de-France airport.
Fewer mules arrested, but levels remain elevated
The use of "mules" is declining. In 2025, 86 people transporting cocaine were arrested by customs in Martinique when boarding for mainland France, compared with 122 the previous year, according to data provided to AFP. "A trend rather towards a decrease compared to 2024, but which remains elevated," Caroline Legave, deputy director of the Antilles-Guyana interregional directorate, told AFP.
The decline in Guyana is more pronounced. The "100 per cent control" policy implemented at the end of 2022 at Cayenne airport led to "a significant reduction in seizures made in Guyana," Caroline Legave explained. This increased pressure, however, caused a "diversion" of mules towards the Caribbean territories in 2023 and 2024, before a "stabilisation" of their numbers.
Air freight, the new favoured route for drug traffickers
In response to strengthened controls on passengers, criminal organisations "are seeking other access routes to mainland France," the deputy director emphasised. Air freight is experiencing an "upward trend," with seizures of "several hundred kilograms" of narcotics in parcels. This channel, which is more difficult to monitor exhaustively, is now establishing itself as the priority vector for air drug trafficking between the Caribbean-Guyana and mainland France.
Source: Google News GP — Crime