Three Britons are among nine people arrested after French police seized almost 1.4 tonnes of cocaine – mainland France's biggest ever haul of the drug, reports The Telegraph.
The cocaine – with a street value of around 160 million pounds – was found stuffed inside 31 suitcases and is believed to have been, at least in part, brought into the country on an Air France flight from Venezuela.
The "luggage" was registered under false names that did not correspond to passengers on the flight to Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport, police sources said.
Some 900kg of the drugs were seized in the airport while the remainder was taken from a lorry en route to Luxembourg, according to Le Monde.
A police source said the drugs were destined for the 'Ndrangeta, the Italian mafia based in Calabria that is believed to control up to 80 per cent of all cocaine imports to Europe.
Three unnamed British men and three Italians were arrested in Paris, according to Venezuelan justice and interior minister Miguel Rodriguez, who said three Police National Guard officers were also arrested in the Venezuelan capital Caracas.
Speaking on Venezuelan state television channel VTV, Mr Rodriguez said intelligence agents had "detained a first lieutenant from the anti-drug unit of the Bolivarian National Guard" along with two National Guard sergeants.
It is "pretty clear" that there were accomplices working with the airline, he added.
"How can the cocaine shipment reach France and it gets taken out without going through the normal controls?" he asked.
Over the next days agents will scrutinise footage taken from security cameras at the Simon Bolivar International Airport and interrogate personnel that work in the airport luggage area, he said.
There was no immediate French confirmation of the nationalities of the individuals being held and questioned.
French officials said the seizure was made earlier this month but that no details had been released until this weekend for "operational reasons".
Air France said an internal investigation had been launched to find out how the drugs were smuggled on board.
Read more of this report from The Telegraph.