Cannabis (illustration).

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Matilde Campodonico / AP / SIPA

In the words of the investigators, it is an “exceptional” seizure.

Some 2.4 tonnes of cannabis and 1.8 million euros in cash were seized on Friday evening near Lyon, according to an announcement Tuesday from the judicial police.

The police also made seven arrests.

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On Friday, investigators from the Lyon branch of the Anti-Narcotics Office, after several months of investigation, followed in the north of the department of Isère, at the gates of the Lyon metropolitan area, a truck arrived from Spain via the highway.

The vehicle was heading to a warehouse in an industrial area and the police intervened in the act, while traffickers began to unload bales of drugs.

A seizure that exceeds expectations

Initial information on Friday evening had mentioned a volume of half a ton of cannabis.

But in the end more than two tonnes were found in the truck and nearby, an additional 300 kg being discovered during a search carried out in a place of storage and conditioning of cannabis.

"Considering the quantity, one can think that the merchandise should be redistributed over the entire Lyon plate", explained a source close to the investigation.

Another record seizure in this case, money: 1.8 million euros in cash, discovered in the truck driven by two drivers of Spanish nationality.

The other five men arrested are French, in their twenties or thirties and established in the north of Isère.

They were already known to the police "but not for cases of such magnitude," said the same source, who is surprised that none of the criminals were armed despite the importance of the load.

Conclusion of a "painstaking job", through which the Lyon PJ hopes to have put an end to a flourishing traffic, the seven arrested were presented Tuesday evening, after 96 hours of police custody, to the specialized interregional court of Lyon, in charge of serious crime cases.

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  • Lyon

  • Miscellaneous

  • Cannabis

  • Drug traffic