Police seized 1.8 tonnes of cocaine from a boat moored at Marigot port on Saint Martin in the French West Indies, sources told AFP on Wednesday.

The sources said the occupants of the vessel, which had a powerful outboard motor favoured by drug traffickers, fled ahead of the sting, which uncovered "several dozen bales" of cocaine.

They remained on the run Wednesday afternoon while public prosecutors on the French island of Guadeloupe entrusted the investigation to authorities on Saint Martin, the north of which is French-administered while the south of the island is Dutch.

In 2022, French authorities intercepted 27.7 tonnes of cocaine, a five percent rise on 2021 although the past decade has seen a fivefold increase, most arriving by sea.