Mafia gangs are targetting yachts on the French Riviera coastline between St Tropez and Cannes. More than 1,000 yachts have been stolen over the last five years.

They are sailed to Malta or Tunisia, registered under a bogus company, then sailed to the Black Sea where a growing clientele of Russian and Ukrainian nouveaux riches await.

Yachts are also used for trafficking drugs, weapons and as ‘people carriers’ in the illegal immigrant trade.