French gendarmes working with Morocco’s national security service seized 2,692 kilograms of narcotics, mainly cannabis resin, at the port of Sète in southern France during an investigation into a trafficking route from Morocco to the Lille area, the French Gendarmerie said.
The investigation was opened on April 13 by the Lille prosecutor’s office and assigned to the Lille research section of the gendarmerie. Investigators were examining a suspected organized network importing cannabis from Morocco to France by sea and then by road, with part of the shipment intended for the Lille metropolitan area.
The French Gendarmerie said the investigation was carried out in coordination with Morocco’s General Directorate of National Security. That cooperation helped investigators define the operation’s details before a judicial operation was launched on May 24 across four sites in France.
The operation involved the Lille research section, gendarmerie units from Hérault and Nord, the Nîmes mobile gendarmerie group and the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group, known as the GIGN.
The drugs were found inside a vehicle when it arrived at the port of Sète, according to the French Gendarmerie. Two people were arrested and placed in custody: the vehicle’s driver and another man suspected of acting as the network’s logistics coordinator.
At the second man’s home in Île-de-France, investigators also seized 34,000 euros in cash and another vehicle.
The Lille prosecutor’s office opened a formal judicial investigation on May 28 on charges including participation in a criminal association, importing narcotics as part of an organized gang, and transporting, acquiring, possessing, offering or selling narcotics.
The two suspects were charged by an investigating judge. One was placed in pretrial detention, while the second was temporarily jailed pending a detention hearing scheduled for June 2.
AFP reported that the Lille prosecutor also announced a separate seizure involving more than one tonne of cannabis in a container that had arrived from Le Havre. Authorities did not say the two cases were connected.
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