Just a first name. A thin lead to open an investigation. A fisherman called "Damien," somewhere near Fécamp in northern France. This was the target of the Caen judicial police when they began, in July 2023, to track down the bales of cocaine that regularly washed up on Normandy beaches, even as no criminal network had yet been dismantled.

On April 4, after more than 18 months of investigation, police seized 615 kilograms of cocaine from a motorboat returning to port. The so-called "cocaine fishermen" based in Ouistreham and Trouville, in Normandy, were caught red-handed. Eleven men have since been charged. Damien M. was among them, alongside two other fishermen, Filipino sailors and henchmen from the Le Havre drug trade.

Police embedded themselves in this tightly knit, silent and wary community. They identified suspicious profiles: sailors who could switch off their Automatic Identification System (AIS) and take erratic courses, flouting regulations. The mysterious Damien M. was soon ensnared. Captain of the Iz-My, the 30 year old was already incarcerated that summer for various maritime offenses. Starting with him – and the phone he used while in prison – investigators cast their net. Under the authority of the Juridiction Interrégionale Spécialisée de Rennes (a special interregional court dedicated to organized crime), they ramped up wiretapping, tracking and surveillance.

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