Investigators assigned to the Port's anti-drug unit are working to track down individuals involved in a network of trafficking and distribution of hashish, “cannabis resin”, worth several million rupees.
Following the discovery of three packages concealing 3.35 kilos of hashish in a hole near a crane on Monday on the tuna boat “M/V Drennec”, the crew has been subjected to DNA samples since Tuesday.
The experts from the Scene Of Crime Office (SOCO) have already taken fingerprints from this bag containing three packages of drugs. It turns out that these packages were also covered in a layer of grease. It was an employee working on board the tuna boat M/V Drennec, belonging to the Compagnie Française du Thon Océanique (CFTO), who discovered this package on the night of Sunday 1 July around 11pm.
He subsequently informed the captain of the boat who in turn alerted the police. The Operational Room (OPS) of the Port Police then requested personnel from the Anti Drug & Smuggling Unit of the Port to be dispatched to the Indian Ocean Shipyard in the Free Port, Red Sea, where the tuna fishing vessel M/V Drennec, which was operating in the Indian Ocean, had been moored since June 5 for repair work. Shortly after the discovery of the hashish packages, officers from the National Coast Guard (NCG) conducted a thorough search of the fishing boat. However, no other traces of drugs were found.
Since Tuesday, all the members of the crew, composed of French, Senegalese, Beninese, Ivorians and Malagasy, numbering 24, have been subjected to a tight interrogation by the squad of Assistant Superintendent Hossanee and Chief Inspector Dabysing of the anti-drug brigade. To date, they had all denied any knowledge and implication concerning the presence of these 3.35 kilos of hashish estimated at Rs 16.7 million.
The police dog was also sent on board the M/V Drennec to sniff out clues leading to the suspects who allegedly handled the drug parcel covered in tape. But to date, this exercise has yielded nothing. Investigators want to determine whether these drug parcels were destined for the Mauritian market or another delivery point in the Indian Ocean area.
Investigators believe that if these drugs were destined for traffickers operating in the country, they may have already been removed from the boat, since these 3.35 kilos of hashish have been stored in a compartment of this boat for almost a month. The investigation by the anti-drug brigade is ongoing.
