Eight jailed in Toulon as Hyères drug case yields 7.7 kg of cannabis resin
Eight people were placed under formal investigation and remanded in custody in Toulon over a drug-trafficking network centred on the Val-des-Rougières estate in Hyères. Searches after the 3 November 2026 raids in four Var towns seized 7.7 kg of cannabis resin, 1 kg of herbal cannabis, €35,600 and two pistols.
Eight people were remanded in custody on Thursday 5 and Friday 6 November 2026
after being placed under formal investigation in Toulon over a drug-trafficking
network centred on Hyères, the public prosecutor of Toulon, Raphaël Balland,
announced.[1][2]The investigating judge accused them of taking part in the
trafficking; they are presumed innocent until a court rules.[3][2]The raids were
carried out on Tuesday 3 November 2026 in Hyères, Solliès-Pont, La Farlède and
La Londe-les-Maures, with the help of the RAID, the national police intervention
unit.[3][4][5]Eight people were detained in the operation, all of them later placed
in pre-trial detention.[3][6][5]
The searches that followed the raids turned up 5.5 kg of cocaine, 7.7 kg of
cannabis resin and 1 kg of cannabis herb, the prosecutor’s office said.[1][2][6][5]Officers also seized€35,600 in cash, two semi-automatic pistols, large
quantities of ammunition, packaging material for drugs, vehicles and some luxury
clothing.[1][2][5]
The case began in May 2025, when the anti-crime squad of the Hyères police
station found several hundred grams of cocaine, cannabis resin and cannabis
herb, along with €6,000, in a parked vehicle in the Val-des-Rougières district
of Hyères.[1][2]The same account gives the May 2025 find as nearly 300 g of
cocaine, 550 g of cannabis resin and 116 g of cannabis herb.[3][7]The
investigation was run by the Hyères police station with the support of the
national investigations unit attached to the national directorate of the
judicial police, and the Toulon prosecutor’s office opened a judicial
investigation in March 2026.[3][2][5]The case is continuing before an investigating
judge at the Toulon judicial court.[1]
The seizures in the case amounted to more than 14 kg of drugs, along with two handguns and €35,600 in cash.[4]The eight suspects lived in Hyères, Solliès-Pont, La Farlède and La Londe-les-Maures.[2]
France 3 reported that the Val-des-Rougières estate had already been the scene of drug-trafficking operations before this case.[7]
The searches began in May 2025 after the anti-crime squad found drugs and cash in a car parked on a car park in Hyères.[6]
Photos and video
The Val-des-Rougières housing estate in Hyères, described as one of the most persistent dealing spots in the Var. Photo: Frank Muller / Var-MatinPhoto details
Nice-Matinnicematin.comFRUne quinzaine de kilos de stupéfiants saisis et huit suspects incarcérés dans le cadre du démantèlement d’un narcotrafic dans le Var
The Nice-Matin account gives no date for the raids; 3 November 2026 comes from Var Actu.
Var Actu reports a judicial investigation opened in March 2026, while Nice-Matin says the Toulon prosecutor opened one after the May 2025 discovery.
The charges laid against individual suspects, the number of searches and the total number of people under investigation were not published.
No trial date or outcome is known; all eight are presumed innocent.
Two earlier Var Actu reports on the same operation gave six arrests and 3 kg of cocaine; the prosecutor's final tally superseded those preliminary figures.
The published photo shows the Val-des-Rougières estate, not the raids or the seizure itself.
France 3 links the Hyères case to the history of the estate by reporting a June 2023 raid there in which seven people were arrested and about 20 kg of drugs, weapons and €70,000 were seized, and a February 2024 operation in which nine people were arrested and 54 kg of cannabis resin, €35,000 and 14 weapons were seized; these are separate events, not covered here.
The 20 Minutes account republished by Yahoo does not describe the raids' exact date or the remand decisions, which rest on the Nice-Matin and Var Actu accounts already cited.
Ouest-France reports €36,000 in cash seized, while the Toulon prosecutor's figures given to the outlets already cited put the amount at €35,600; the report keeps the prosecutor's figure.
Ouest-France cites France 3 Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur dated 7 November 2026 as its source, so it is not independent reporting of the operation.
Damien Coulange, 34, appeared before the Nevers criminal court on 4 November 2026 over 245 g of cannabis herb and 44 g of resin found when police searched his flat for an unrelated armed-robbery case in September 2025. He admitted dealing to pay a drug debt while already serving five years for armed robbery, and the prosecutor requested three years of immediate imprisonment.
A van caught fire on the A9 near Vergèze on 25 October 2026, revealing about 150 kg of burning cannabis resin alongside cigarettes and perfumes. The Brussels-based driver, tried for drug trafficking in Nîmes, was acquitted on the benefit of the doubt after saying he thought he was carrying olive oil.
Nineteen suspects were referred to the Paris criminal court over a network that allegedly paid for Guadeloupe-routed cocaine with cannabis shipped from mainland France. A twentieth suspect, jailed in Spain, will not stand trial with them, and a 3 November hearing will set the trial calendar.
Nine people aged 22 to 32 were placed under formal investigation at Nanterre between 16 and 22 October 2026 over a cannabis network that ran from a CBD farm in the Hérault, near Montpellier, to dealers in the Val-d’Oise and northern Hauts-de-Seine. Eight were remanded in custody and one woman was released under judicial supervision.