Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni in France, 7,000 km from Paris. We are in French Guiana,
the new hub of global cocaine trafficking. According to the authorities,
this overseas department supplies 20% of the cocaine consumed in France. With about 50 smugglers per flight, a hundred kilos arrive
every day from Cayenne airport. Le Monde analyzed satellite images
of the region, signals emitted by air traffic,
and scrutinized local police reports. All of this helps to understand
why French Guiana, a French territory,
has found itself at the heart of global cocaine trafficking, and to reconstruct its supply chain
from Colombia to the mainland. Most of this cocaine comes from Colombia. The country is the source of more
than 60% of global production, according to the UN. Hundreds of kilos of the drug are then
transported illegally in container ships, fishing boats, small-scale semi-submersibles
or small passenger planes. One of the most documented means
of transportation in police seizures. By examining the clues
left by the traffickers, we can quickly trace
the Colombian origin of these cargoes. In this 2018 seizure,
for example, police officers discovered agricultural bags containing a total of 500 kg of cocaine. This logo and address points to a small store located here
in the Colombian town of Villavicencio. In this documentary,
the same type of bag is used by the Colombian cartel,
the Clan del Golfo. The traffickers boast
that they can export the merchandise by plane without any difficulty,
by bribing the authorities. When the plane takes off,
you can see the airport where it leaves from: Villavicencio. Then the landing strip where
they collect the merchandise. 40 km away. In this report,
the cartel explains that the cargo flies to the Venezuela border. The country serves
as a storage area until the drugs are shipped to their destination. This second part of the journey
has long been coordinated by a Brazilian criminal group. The group had a fleet
of at least 51 aircraft, since seized by the Brazilian police. The traffickers left
behind these pieces of paper. GPS coordinates,
in the form of a simple code, to indicate where to pick
up and drop off the goods. This one indicates for example
the location of this landing strip, located very close
to the Surinamese capital, Paramaribo. Cost of the delivery service to Suriname: €136,000 for 400 kg of cocaine. Suriname is an important transit zone for cocaine bound for Guyana. A strategic step for several reasons. The planes used by the traffickers
have an average range of 1,200 km. It is therefore necessary to refuel
at regular intervals. However,
the country has a dense network of landing strips:
43 legal landing strips, often isolated,
and many others, illegal. Thanks to satellite images,
Le Monde was able to identify 8 new ones, illegally made since 2019. On these,
we can even distinguish a plane, on December 21, 2022. In total,
we have listed 14 planes linked to this traffic, notably from reports
from the Surinamese police. In order to deliver their customers
discreetly, these planes switch off the signal that
they are legally obliged to emit in flight. But they are not totally invisible. When photographed in flight by satellites, they leave a trace like this one:
a red, green and blue dot on a straight line. With the help of a researcher,
we analyzed more than 1000 satellite images of Suriname,
available since January 2020. They allowed us to identify 64 flights. And out of these 64 flights,
a quarter were made by aircraft that switched off their signal in flight. This scale suggests the frequency
of illegal flights and the shortcomings of air traffic control. Suriname is a narco-state. A country where all legitimate institutions
have been penetrated by the power and wealth derived from the illegal drug trade. Two men embody this system. First, Desi Bouterse. President of the country from 2010 to 2020, he was also sentenced to 11 years in prison
for cocaine trafficking in the Netherlands. Then there is Ronnie Brunswijk, current vice president
and Bouterse's former rival. He has also been convicted
of drug trafficking by the Dutch and French courts. A whole criminal network is centered
around these two men. This close friend of Ronnie Brunswijk was,
for example, convicted in France for coordinating
a network of cocaine smugglers from Guyana. All these elements
make Suriname an ideal transit zone for the big traffickers. For a long time,
they sent cocaine directly to the Netherlands,
the country's former colonizers. But in the early 2000s,
stricter controls on airlines were put in place in Amsterdam. The traffickers then turned to the sea route and found an alternative for the air route. French Guiana,
a French overseas department, was chosen for several reasons. Firstly, geographical. Its porous border
with Suriname extends over 520 km. And it has daily air links to Paris. Then, for sociological reasons. 53% of the population lives
below the poverty line, compared to 14% in mainland France. This is how it works most of the time. Cocaine is bought in Surinam
and is sometimes ingested there in the form of eggs by mules,
drug couriers. They cross the Maroni border river
in a pirogue, then take a cab together
from Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni to the Félix-Éboué airport in Cayenne. There,
they board flights to metropolitan France. Police checks are carried out,
but the number of customs and police officers is insufficient to deal
with the amount of traffickers. Only about ten places in medical custody
are available in Cayenne. However,
after ingesting cocaine eggs, it can take several days to expel the drug. The traffickers therefore saturate
these controls by sending as many people as possible to the airport. Some of them are sacrificed
and receive prison sentences. But the merchandise gets through. Despite this,
traffickers have no trouble recruiting. The main risk,
the explosion of the bags in the stomach, and the brutal death that follows,
has been greatly reduced by improved packaging. The cocaine is now coated with many layers of plastic resistant to gastric juices. For 1 kg of transported goods,
the mules are paid from a few hundred to 1,500 euros. Result: since 2014,
the amount of cocaine seized in Guiana has increased 16-fold, from 100 kg to 1.6 tons. By 2022,
it represented about 20% of the total supply in France. Mainly in provincial cities
in mainland France. On Guianese social networks,
this traffic is discussed in a barely concealed way. I know what you're into.
You test the airlines, especially Air mule. Flour, round trip Orly. In some rap videos,
the mule lifestyle is shown as a model of success. But it is not only the youngest
or most disadvantaged social classes that are affected. Between 2020 and 2022,
the mayor of a city, a policeman
and a well-known trade unionist were, for example,
caught participating in cocaine trafficking.
