French police seized 150 kilograms of pure cocaine hidden in a shipment of ballet shoes smuggled in from the Dominican Republic, Le Parisien newspaper reported yesterday.

Narcotics police arrested two Dominicans last week at the French capitals Charles de Gaulle airport in a sting operation and tracked down the shipment to an apartment in the east of Paris. The men were part of a Dominican drugs gang that also owned properties in The Netherlands and Spain, police said.

French police said the Dominican Republic was a major hub for drugs heading from South American cartels in Colombia and Venezuela to western Europe, the report said.