04 April 2024
On 26 February 2024 Jersey’s Attorney General, Mark Temple KC, was approached by
French authorities carrying out anti-drugs smuggling patrols in the Caribbean, for permission
to search a Jersey-registered vessel, Maria Del Mar, approximately two hundred miles south
of Barbados.
With assistance from the Jersey Customs and Immigration Service, permission was granted
by the Attorney General under Article 11C of the Misuse of Drugs (Jersey) Law 1978 which
provides jurisdiction in respect of offences on ships. Article 11C of the 1978 Law reflects
Article 17 of the United Nations Convention against the Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and
Psychotropic Substances, 1988 (the ‘Vienna Convention’) which Jersey chose to have
extended to it in 1997.
Upon boarding the vessel the same day, the French authorities discovered 1,100kg of
cocaine.
All four persons on board were arrested: three Spanish nationals and one Colombian national,
and all are now in custody in the French Département et Région d'Outre-Mer of Martinique.
The Attorney General received a message of thanks from the French Ministry of Foreign
Affairs for his prompt assistance leading to the successful conclusion of the operation and
expressing the wish that the cooperation between the British and French services in the fight
against drug trafficking continues and develops.
Attorney General Mark Temple KC said: “Jersey is keen to play its part in combatting illicit
drug trafficking, wherever it takes place. We congratulate the French authorities on this
successful operation and confirm that we will continue to assist them. The drugs in this case
would have done enormous damage had they reached their intended markets.”
gov.je