PARIS (Reuters) - French authorities seized half a tonne of cocaine worth around 40 million euros ($44.9 million) in the northern port of Dunkirk last month, Budget Minister Gerald Darmanin said in a statement on Tuesday.

The narcotics were found on April 29, in a container ship carrying bananas that had traveled from the small South American nation of Suriname, and French prosecutors were carrying out further investigations, the statement added.