eleven people indicted and 2 tons of cannabis seized after the dismantling of international drug trafficking

Arrests and indictments after more than a year of investigation into international drug trafficking. Eleven people were indicted and among them, nine were placed in pre-trial detention, Tuesday June 6, announced the parquet floor of Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône), in a press release published Wednesday. They are being prosecuted after the arrest of 16 people on Friday in Bouches-du-Rhône, Var, Vaucluse, Pyrénées-Orientales and in Spain. In all, more than two tons of cannabis, among other things, were seized.

These people, specifies the parquet floor of Marseilles, are for certain “known in the middle of narco-banditry”. These arrests come after more than a year of investigation by the gendarmes of the Marseille research section, and the departmental gendarmerie group of Vaucluse. These arrests “have put a stop to international drug trafficking supplying many departments in the great south of France”, always according to the prosecution.

An investigation started in early 2022

The investigation started when a man was released from prison in the first half of 2022. “The investigations revealed the organization of numerous convoys of the go fast organized from supply hubs located in Vaucluse, Bouches-du-Rhône, or in Pyrénées-Orientales”, details the parquet. Connections have emerged between suspects based in France and Spain, the country from which the cannabis resin originated. Drugs conveyed in particular by semi-trailer. “On each trip, several hundred kilos of narcotics were imported from Spain”adds the floor.

Finally, on Friday, a vast operation mobilized 200 gendarmes supported by the GIGN. The police thus intercepted a semi-trailer which contained 1.4 tonnes of cannabis resin, the driver was arrested. Subsequently, investigators arrested 14 other people and seized “580 additional kilos of cannabis resin, 1.5 kilos of cocaine, handguns and long guns, vehicles, watches and luxury items, money in cash and in bank accounts”, says the prosecution. A last person was arrested in Malaga (Spain) on Monday.