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CRIME

French cops find 21kg of coke in ‘tourist’ suitcase

A tourist at Nice airport got quite a fright this week when police found 21 kilos of cocaine stowed away in a suitcase labelled with his name.

Published: 3 April 2015 15:05 CEST
French cops find 21kg of coke in 'tourist' suitcase
The smugglers had checked in a suitcase falsely labelled with the tourist's name. Photo of Nice airport: Shutterstock

French customs on Friday announced that they had seized 21 kilos of cocaine from a suitcase at Nice Airport, southern France, France Info reported.

The drug stash, which was found in 18 packets, was placed in a suitcase belonging to a tourist travelling from the Dominican Republic.

However when questioned about the hoard the man was baffled and further investigations showed that the drugs had been placed in a suitcase fraudulently labelled with the tourist’s name.

The stash has an estimated street value of €1.3 million.

Last year French customs seized a total of six tonnes of cocaine.

One part of this came after a surgeon found a whopping 600g of cocaine inside a man’s stomach after he had complained of chronic stomach pains.

The man later admitted to ingesting the drugs on a recent trip to South America, with intent to smuggle it into France.  

Last September two men were jailed after they allegedly used an official Vatican vehicle to try to smuggle several kilos of cocaine and cannabis through France. 
 

BANKING

Danish bank to pay millions to end French laundering probe

Denmark’s largest bank has agreed to pay a multi-million sum to end legal pursuits in France linked to alleged money laundering in its Estonian subsidiary that resulted in heavy US penalties

Published: 18 September 2024 16:27 CEST
Danish bank to pay millions to end French laundering probe

Danske Bank will pay €6.3million (47million kroner) to end French financial authorities’ investigation.

An independent auditor’s report published in 2018 alleged Danske Bank’s Estonian unit allegedly laundered some €200billion through 15,000 accounts from 2007 to 2015.

The payment was agreed on August 27th with France’s national financial crime prosecutors and validated by a court on Wednesday. The agreement does not involve any admission of guilt.

Danske last December pleaded guilty in the United States and paid a $2billion fine.

The bank last October set aside an amount roughly equal to its US fine in expectation of legal pursuits in several countries.

Probes are underway in Estonia, Denmark, and Britain.

France charged Danske in 2019 with organised money laundering, which it denied, saying it was unaware of its Estonian subsidiary’s activities.

Tracfin, the French finance ministry’s anti-money laundering unit, found suspect movements on two accounts linked to a Franco-Russian businesswoman who has since been handed a two-year suspended sentence.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Danske’s counsel Niels Heering said his institution was “happy to reach this accord which for us is a way to close this chapter”, adding that “cracking down on financial fraud remains a priority” for the bank.

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