(Paris) A record quantity of seven tonnes of nitrous oxide, also called laughing gas, with a market value of 2.7 million euros were seized in December in Seine-et-Marne, police announced on Monday. national.
Encapsulated in bottles, the gas was discovered in a hangar in Noisiel (Seine-et-Marne), added a police source.
This seizure is the largest seizure ever made in France, according to this source.
The investigation opened in September by the Lyon public prosecutor’s office made it possible to put together an “international network for the resale of nitrous oxide” and to identify a storage location in Seine-et-Marne, the source said.
Two people were arrested on December 9 at Le Bourget, whose head of the network indicated the same source, confirming information from the newspaper The world.
The investigation, entrusted to the departmental safety of the Rhône, was opened in September for concealed work in an organized gang, street vendors and sale or distribution of a product specifically intended to facilitate the extraction of nitrous oxide to obtain the results. psychoactive effects, the prosecution told AFP in mid-October.
At the end of September, four tonnes had been seized in Villeurbanne, near Lyon, and several people arrested.
Over the counter, laughing gas, which can be found in the form of cartridges for whipped cream siphons or in the medical sector for anesthetic purposes, is popular with party-goers and young people, who divert its use for its euphoric effect. .
The consumption of nitrous oxide presents risks such as suffocation, loss of consciousness, burns, but also, in case of repeated use or in high doses, severe neurological, hematological, psychiatric and cardiac disorders, warns on its website, the Interministerial Mission for the Fight against Drugs and Addictive Behaviors.
Since the 1er June 2021, a law prohibits “selling and distributing” this product “in order to obtain psychoactive effects”, under penalty of a fine of 3,750 euros.