“The year 2024 is already a promising year for cocaine seizures”: customs note an explosion in trafficking

Le trafic de cocaïne emprunte les axes routiers du Sud de la France. Douanes

Several large interceptions of several dozen kilos of coke have been made in Gard and Hérault since the start of the year. While in 2023, the P-O and Aude have broken records on this same drug.

The sources of supply for cocaine trafficking, which generates colossal profits and bloody deal points, are far from being dried up. The customs seizures in recent weeks on the A 9 are an illustration of this.

Mid-May, a 57-year-old Spanish trucker who was transporting peaches and cherries and driving towards Italy, was stopped at the Loupian motorway area, in the Loupian motorway. rsquo;Hérault, with 52 kg of white powder.

The drug consisted of three packages "taped under the driver's back seat" indicates an investigator.

And on March 20, still in 2024, 114 kilos of coke were found in a truck, registered in Romania, which was transporting PVC pipes, checked in the Vergèze area (Gard).

"The cache method was innovative"

"The means of hiding was innovative" reports a customs officer because, again, it&rsquo ;the drugs were hidden in the driver's cabin.

"Surprisingly, it’s already a good year for cocaine with three cases already",  comments Ludovic Gérard, deputy director of the Montpellier regional customs service (which covers Hérault, Gard and Lozère). Who analyzes the provenance as follows: "If cannabis flows from Africa, cocaine passes through the ports of the Far North, Amsterdam or Antwerp"< /em> he details.