A 55-year-old Belgian truck driver was stopped on the A7 south of Lyon on 21 May with more than half a tonne of cannabis aboard his refrigerated truck.[1] Stéphane H. was arrested at dawn at the Reventin-Vaugris toll plaza.[1] He was driving toward Oyonnax in the Ain department.[2] He drove a Dutch-registered refrigerated truck carrying the drugs loose in bags.[2][3] He said he took the smuggling jobs to pay off more than 50,000 euros in debts, taken on partly for his wife’s medical care.[1] An acquaintance had repeatedly proposed the work before he accepted 10,000 euros per trip.[2] He appeared before the criminal court, where he expressed regret.[1] In court he said he should have listened to his wife and daughter and that he had plunged his family into misery.[1] The court sentenced him to three years in prison and a one-million-euro customs fine.[2] The truck was confiscated and impounded.[2]

When customs officers opened the trailer they found no refrigerated goods but dozens of stacked bags holding 510 kilos of hashish.[1] The resin tested at 38 percent THC, well above the 30 percent average.[4][3] The load’s resale value was estimated at nearly 4 million euros.[1][3] Officers also found 2 grams of cocaine in a pouch in the cab.[4] The driver said the cocaine had been given to him so he would not fall asleep.[4] He spent 96 hours in custody with the Lyon branch of the anti-drugs office Ofast, where he admitted carrying the drugs to pay his debts.[2]

His routine was to fly to Barcelona and drive each load back into France by road.[2] Three trips had gone without trouble before the fourth ended in his arrest.[1][3]