Rabat – French security services seized over 9.1 tons of cannabis after capturing a Moroccan-registered truck hijacked by armed individuals in Lyon, France.
French news outlets, including AFP, described the case as France’s largest drug bust.
On April 21, armed individuals took over the truck on the evening of April 21 at a gas station in Vitrolls.
Following the hijacking of the truck, police and gendarmerie received anonymous calls offering details, enabling security services to locate the truck and the cannabis.
“Thanks to meticulous investigation, the Lyon [research division] investigators discovered a truck registered in Morocco containing two tightly sealed metal crates,” AFP quoted the gendarmes as saying, noting that the other crates were found to contain carefully packed cannabis resin.
Investigation and security operations enabled security services to seize 9.133 tons of cannabis resin and related products with an estimated value of 72 million.
Two suspects were charged with drug trafficking and armed robbery in an organized gang on April 27, according to Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau.
The news outlet stressed that the security operation is among the largest ever made in France. One of the latest operations took place in May 2019, when security services seized 11 tons of cannabis in the Besançon region.
The largest seizure that took place in France dates back to February 1999, when security services seized 23.5 tons of cannabis resin in the English Channel on board a Latvian-flagged fishing trawler, Nemo, in Boulogne-sur-Mer in northern France.
