Belgian trucker jailed 5 years over 447 kg cannabis on A9 at Bages
Narbonne customs seized 447 kg of cannabis from a Belgian refrigerated lorry stopped on the A9 at Bages, and the Belgian driver was jailed for five years. The 12 March 2024 sentence also imposed a lifetime ban from France and an 890,025 euro customs fine.
On 12 March 2024 the judicial court in Narbonne sentenced a Belgian lorry driver
to five years in prison with continued detention, a lifetime ban from French
territory and a customs fine of 890,025 euros.[1]Customs officers had handed
the driver to the Perpignan judicial police when their procedure ended.[1]The
driver, a Belgian national in his forties, was stopped while driving a Belgian
refrigerated heavy-goods vehicle on the A9.[1]During the check he told
officers he had come from Spain and was heading to northern France to deliver
various goods to a supermarket chain.[1]Officers judged those explanations
vague and ordered a full check of the vehicle combination.[1]
A customs sniffer dog then guided officers during the inspection.[1]In the
cab, the pallet doors and the load, the dog team found 11 sports bags holding
cannabis herb and resin.[1]A complete search of the lorry recorded 430.5 kg
of cannabis resin and 16.5 kg of cannabis herb.[1]The Narbonne customs
operation recovered 447 kg of cannabis in total on the A9 at Bages in the Aude
on 9 March 2024.[1]
Photos and video
Customs photo of the drug seizure made with the sniffer dog. Photo: Brigade des douanes de NarbonnePhoto details
The article dates the seizure to mardi 9 mars 2024, but 9 March 2024 was a Saturday while 12 March 2024 was a Tuesday, so 12 March is used as the incident date for the sentencing step.
The driver is identified only as a Belgian national in his forties; no full name was published.
Only one accessible source for this event was found after searching in French and English.
No separate street or wholesale valuation of the cannabis was published; the 890,025 euro figure is a customs fine.
Other images on the page are programme logos or unrelated thumbnails, so only the customs seizure photo is listed as media.
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.