These are original photos from cocaine seizure in Tahiti Marinika Tepic talked about: Vucic is not in them

Photo: Douane France/printscreen

Yesterday, the vice-president of the opposition Party of Freedom and Justice (SSP), Marinika Tepic, announced at a press conference that the French police had seized packages of cocaine that feature the image of the president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic.

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However, the original photos attached to an official statement issued by the French police show that it is in fact the image of Colombian President Gustavo Petro.

The photos Tepic presented date back to 2022. The statement posted about this seizure and a gallery of images, among which is the one she claimed had Vucic's image, clearly shows the image Petro.

The French police statement from September 21, 2022 reads that customs officers from the Faa'a Surveillance Brigade and the Papeete Port Brigade had discovered more than 423 kilos of cocaine hidden in sophisticated caches on a sailboat in the port of Papeete, and adds:

"Customs investigations led to the identification of a sailboat, a 15-meter sloop from Panama bound for Australia, likely used to transport narcotics.

Given the sailboat's route, French Polynesian customs officers implemented a system to intercept the vessel as soon as it entered the port of Papeete.

With the technical support of the National Police Territorial Directorate/Border Police, the boat was intercepted on Wednesday, September 21st and subjected to a thorough search by customs officers. Police divers were also deployed to inspect the hull and keel.

After several hours of searching, customs officers finally discovered two elaborately constructed hiding places at the stern of the boat, equipped with an electromagnetic opening system and using false mirrors to deceive the officers.

A total of 379 bales of cocaine, or 423.8 kilos, were seized. This seizure is historic for Polynesian customs officials; the previous record cocaine seizure occurred in 2017.

The interception of this seventh sailing vessel confirms that French Polynesia remains a transit point on a maritime route used by drug traffickers from Latin America to smuggle cocaine to countries in the South Pacific and even Asia.

Since the first half of 2022, French customs officials have seized more than 15 tons of cocaine."

(Telegraf.rs/Blic)