11 tonnes of cannabis seized on A36 near Besancon in record haul
French judicial police seized 11 tonnes of cannabis from vehicles including a truck on the A36 motorway toward Paris near Besancon on 10 May 2019, a national record since 1999. Four suspects including an Italian national were arrested at the end of a trafficking investigation opened in 2017 with Moroccan and Spanish cooperation.
French judicial police seized11 tonnes of cannabis in the Besancon area on Friday 10 May 2019, intercepting several vehicles including a truck on the A36 motorway toward Paris.[1]Police arrested four suspects during the operation, including an Italian national.[1]
The operation was run by the judicial police of Strasbourg and the central office against drug trafficking, and capped a judicial investigation opened in 2017 with what the interior minister called exemplary cooperation from Moroccan and Spanish investigation teams.[1]The Nancy prosecutor’s office said the investigation had revealed large-scale trafficking between Morocco, Spain, France and Belgium.[1]Interior Minister Christophe Castaner publicly congratulated the officers on the record seizure.[1]
The 11-tonne haul was the largest cannabis seizure in France since 1999, when police had taken 23.5 tonnes in Boulogne-sur-Mer in northern France.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Customs officers seized 40 kg of cannabis products from a Spanish UPS truck at the Fontaine toll on the A36 on 9 November 2026. Two Spain-based delivery drivers, aged 36 and 46, were detained after admitting they acted as “mules” for a load collected in Madrid.
Police seized about 100 kilos of drugs, mainly cannabis with some cocaine, from a nourrice stash flat supplying deal points in Vénissieux's Joliot-Curie sector. The reports give only a combined weight, so no cannabis-only quantity can be recorded.
Six people were taken into custody after searches across Corrèze and Saône-et-Loire linked to the Kannathera CBD chain; police seized 444.1 kg of cannabis, 190.2 kg of it resin. The Brive prosecutor's office said four suspects were placed under judicial supervision pending trial and two others were summoned to court.
On 3 November 2026 a Paris court ended a mother's social-housing lease after several kilos of cannabis and cash were found in her son's bedroom, put at 6.5 kg. The court accepted she paid rent, had no neighbour complaints and knew nothing of her son's activity.
