355 kg resin found in Barcelona-bound truck at Arles toll; driver jailed 3 years
Customs officers of the Nîmes brigade found 355 kilograms of cannabis resin hidden behind sacks of sawdust in a truck stopped at the Arles toll on the A54 on the night of 29 January 2026. The 53-year-old driver was sentenced on 3 February to three years in prison, a five-year ban from France and a 710,000-euro customs fine.
🇫🇷 Péage d'Arles, autoroute A54, Arles, Bouches-du-Rhône · France
Customs officers of the Nîmes internal surveillance brigade (BSI) stopped a
Spain-registered articulated lorry at the Arles toll plaza on the A54 motorway,
in the Spain-to-Italy direction.[1]The control took place around midnight on
the night of 29 January 2026.[1]A customs sniffer-dog team gave a positive
indication on the left pallet-carrier of the trailer.[1]
Behind sacks of sawdust officers found many heat-sealed parcels, and on-the-spot
tests confirmed the contents as cannabis resin pressed into soap-bar form.[1]The search brought the total seized to 355 kilograms of cannabis resin.[1]The
load was handed to OFAST, the French anti-narcotics office in Marseille, for the
rest of the proceedings.[1]The driver was held in customs detention and taken
to the brigade.[1]
The truck was carrying mainly textiles from Barcelona to Italy, declared as
goods for the retailer Lidl.[1]The driver, a 53-year-old Dominican national
resident in Spain, was jailed for three years and given a 710,000-euro customs
fine.[2]The court also barred him from French territory for five years and
ordered the confiscation of all the drugs and of the lorry.[2]He was judged
in Marseille on Wednesday 3 February.[2]
According to the Montpellier regional customs directorate, a customs dog picked
up a suspicious smell around the pallet trucks in the load of clothing.[2]
The regional customs directorate said a seizure this size happens only two or
three times a year, with a kilo of cannabis worth about 2,000 euros.[2]
Police & Réalités, citing the Nîmes daily La Gazette de Nîmes, reported that six
customs officers based in Nîmes carried out the control.[3]
Photos and video
Photo published with the report on the 355 kg resin seizure of 29 January 2026, captioned 'Les douanes ont réussi une saisie de 355 kg de cannabis le 29 janvier dernier'. Photo: DouanesPhoto details
Midi Libre is paywalled after its first two paragraphs: the paper's own account of the sentence was not read, and the custodial term, entry ban, fine and confiscation come from ICI Gard Lozère and Police & Réalités.
The driver's nationality is given as Spanish in the customs statement quoted by Midi Libre but as a Dominican national resident in Spain by ICI Gard Lozère and Police & Réalités.
Police & Réalités calls the hearing 3 February a sitting of the public prosecutor's office ('parquet de Marseille'); the exact court that gave the sentence is unclear.
The customs figure is given as 355 kg, while headlines and the Midi Libre lead say 'more than 300 kg'; the 355 kg customs total is used.
The sources give no value estimate for this load; the regional customs directorate's statement that a kilo is worth about 2,000 euros is a general price, not a valuation of this seizure.
No plea, pre-trial detention period or appeal was reported.
A taxi-arles.com rewrite built on a Le Dauphiné Libéré piece adds claims of an accomplice role and a different court and is treated as unreliable; it is not cited.
A 28-year-old driver tested positive for cannabis after rear-ending a car and injuring its driver at Percy-en-Normandie on 2 January 2026. The Coutances court sentenced him on 10 November 2026 to six months suspended imprisonment and cancelled his driving licence.
The criminal court in Troyes sentenced 47-year-old Ramzi Nefzaoui to 14 months in firm prison for drug trafficking and issued an arrest warrant. The case began when gendarmes stopped his Renault Laguna at Barberey-Saint-Sulpice in December 2025 and found cannabis resin, herb, cash and a scale.
The Fontainebleau criminal court sentenced a driver to five years in prison, including two years firm, over a fatal 2021 crash at Souppes-sur-Loing in which his 20-year-old passenger died. The court heard he had drunk alcohol and smoked cannabis and was driving at 135 km/h in a 30 km/h zone.
Anti-crime police in Passamaïnty, Mayotte, broke up a drug deal on 4 November 2026 and seized 3.334 kg of cannabis and 8,495 euros in cash from a suspected stash flat; three people were arrested. Two young men were tried in Mamoudzou on 9 November and sentenced to 30 months with 12 suspended and a 15-month suspended term.