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| FRENCH INTERIOR MINISTER MANUEL VALLS |
More than a ton of cocaine was seized at a Paris airport after it was found packed into 30 suitcases carried on a passenger plane.
French police, who had been working with British, Dutch and Spanish colleagues, discovered the 1.3-ton haul on a flight to Charles De Gaulle airport from the Venezuelan capital Caracas.
The cocaine, which was carried on an Air France plane, had a street value of some £175m (200m euros).
French Interior Minister Manuel Valls said it was the biggest find of its type in metropolitan France.
Six people have been arrested so far, he said.
French police commander Mohamed Douhane said: "Such a seizure, in such circumstances, is quite simply exceptional.
"Now an inquiry ... will have to determine if there were other accomplices, whether within the company or at the arrival or departure airports," he added.
French police discovered the haul on September 11 but only revealed it on Saturday as they put the 30 empty suitcases on display.
None of them were apparently registered to any passengers. It is not clear how the stash would have been collected.
The office of Venezuela's attorney general said authorities were investigating how the cocaine-laden suitcases got aboard the flight at Caracas's Simon Bolivar International Airport.
Cocaine comes from coca leaves grown in countries like Colombia, Peru and Bolivia.
Venezuela does not produce cocaine, according to United Nations monitors, but experts say drug traffickers are increasingly using its territory to smuggle drugs into other nations.
French police, who had been working with British, Dutch and Spanish colleagues, discovered the 1.3-ton haul on a flight to Charles De Gaulle airport from the Venezuelan capital Caracas.
The cocaine, which was carried on an Air France plane, had a street value of some £175m (200m euros).
French Interior Minister Manuel Valls said it was the biggest find of its type in metropolitan France.
Six people have been arrested so far, he said.
French police commander Mohamed Douhane said: "Such a seizure, in such circumstances, is quite simply exceptional.
"Now an inquiry ... will have to determine if there were other accomplices, whether within the company or at the arrival or departure airports," he added.
French police discovered the haul on September 11 but only revealed it on Saturday as they put the 30 empty suitcases on display.
None of them were apparently registered to any passengers. It is not clear how the stash would have been collected.
The office of Venezuela's attorney general said authorities were investigating how the cocaine-laden suitcases got aboard the flight at Caracas's Simon Bolivar International Airport.
Cocaine comes from coca leaves grown in countries like Colombia, Peru and Bolivia.
Venezuela does not produce cocaine, according to United Nations monitors, but experts say drug traffickers are increasingly using its territory to smuggle drugs into other nations.
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