Cocaine was traveling on a berth. It was packaged in eight black sports bags simply placed on the bed of the heavyweight of an A8 motorway, when the customs of the boat toll (Bouches-du-Rhône) discovered it, this July 27, during a routine control in the middle of the night. The documents presented by the Romanian driver attest to a cargo of wood and aluminum from Spain and to Italy. But after analysis, it is a seizure of 206.6 kilos of extrapure cocaine, wrapped in breads decorated with a blessed Buddha, which increases the already record balance of drug seizures conveyed from the other side of the Pyrenees.
As of May 31, 2.9 tonnes of cocaine had been discovered by the repressive services, from Spain, since the start of the year. A trend that confirms the leap of the seizures between 2022 and 2024 (+ 160 %). At BIRATOU (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) and Boulou (Pyrénées-Orientales) tolls, the seizures are almost daily. This « saturation »as the customs officials note, takes the form of convoys where the unusual becomes normality. Tractors, sports cars, minivans, everything is good to blur the tracks, with, behind the wheel, both students or young women and retirees.
You have 77.9% of this article to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
