Three people were placed under formal investigation for drug trafficking after gendarmes broke up an international network importing cannabis and cocaine into France from Spain and the Netherlands.[1]
On the evening of 9 October 2020, GIGN officers stopped a convoy of two cars on the A9 motorway between Orange and Nîmes and found 67 kg of cannabis in the vehicles.[1] Actu Lyon described the two people in the intercepted car as couriers.[2] At the same time officers searched the home of the suspected head of the network in the Lyon area, finding 21,000 euros in cash with luxury watches, clothes and high-fashion leather goods.[1] In the same search investigators found 31 kg of cocaine, whose resale value was estimated at several million euros.[1] In total 250,000 euros of criminal assets and six cars were also seized in the operation.[1]
Two people were placed under formal investigation and held in pre-trial detention for importing, transporting, holding, offering or transferring and acquiring drugs and for taking part in a criminal association.[1] The third person, the Lyon man considered the head of the network, was placed under formal investigation for failing to justify his resources while habitually associating with drug traffickers, and was placed under judicial supervision.[2] The Paris deputy prosecutor in charge of the case confirmed the two couriers were charged on 13 October.[2] The two detained suspects face up to 30 years’ imprisonment and a 7.5 million euro fine under the penal code, a possible penalty a court has not yet imposed.[1]
The investigation began before the spring 2020 lockdown, when gendarmes from the Versailles research section identified a drug trafficker based in Spain as running a network exporting cannabis to France.[1] The operation was carried out under a rogatory commission from an investigating judge at the Paris inter-regional specialised court, after surveillance by the Versailles, Lyon and Marseille research sections and GIGN observation teams exposed several go-fast imports.[1]
