FRENCH authorities have seized a third major cocaine shipment near French Polynesia, bringing the total amount intercepted since the beginning of the year to 11.5 tonnes.
Authorities seized the 2.4-tonne drug shipment comprising 100 bales of cocaine from a vessel during a joint operation with the United States.
The seizure was the third of its kind in the past month, after French armed forces intercepted 4.24 tonnes of cocaine on February 2 and 4.87 tonnes of the drug from the Australia-bound vessel MV Raider on January 16.
The drugs seized in the three operations have an estimated market value of $USD2.4 billion.
French authorities destroyed the cargo and allowed the vessel to continue to its destination.
Officials did not specify the name, destination, flag state, or point of origin of the latest ship.
In recent months, a suspected semi-submersible vessel known as a narco sub was found on a small atoll in the Marshall Islands, 5000 kilometres north-west of French Polynesia.
Last year, a similar craft was found abandoned in the Solomon Islands.