They received sentences ranging from three to eight years in prison on Wednesday for their participation in drug trafficking via travel buses.
Six members of a network involved in a narcotics trafficking network using buses to import cannabis into France from Morocco were sentenced Wednesday to terms of three to eight years in prison in Lyon.
“This case brought to light an entire structure of import and distribution, with transport professionals who used their vehicles to transport narcotics”, summed up in her indictment the prosecutor Anne-Sophie Huet before the criminal court of Lyon.
After telephone tapping and spinning, investigators from the Lyon DIPJ narcotics brigade intercepted a bus for the first time on the Lançon-de-Provence area on June 23, 2018. They discovered a stock of 436 kilos of cannabis in blocks of about twenty kilos. The drug, with a market value estimated at nearly 900,000 euros, was concealed under three hatches in the central corridor of the bus and under a false floor in the baggage compartment.
The “organizer” arrested in Spain
According to the prosecution, buses chartered by a company registered in Portugal were used in two other bus routes carrying passengers and drugs between Morocco and Lyon. One of these vehicles was intercepted in Tangier, Morocco, on August 3, 2018, with 135 kilograms of cannabis on board.
Mohamed B., alias “Moussa”, was described by the prosecutor as “the organizer of transport directly linked to suppliers in Morocco, in contact with a wholesaler in Lyon”.
Arrested in Spain and extradited to Lyon, the man used his personal cell phone to manage the progress of the drivers and “continued from his cell after his extradition”, revealed Anne-Sophie Huet.
Two apartments and four cars in Spain
The man challenged this central role, calling himself a farmworker. But for the prosecutor, “the acquisition of two apartments and four cars in Spain, as well as a building of four apartments in Morocco” demonstrate on the contrary its high level of involvement.
According to the transcripts of wiretaps read during two days of trial, the suspect boasted over the phone of being able to bribe a police officer and a magistrate in Morocco to facilitate transport, while complaining about the “new scanners” put in place at the port of Tangier to detect drugs in vehicles. He was sentenced to 8 years in prison, a fine of 80,000 euros with confiscation of his property, and a definitive ban from French territory.
Two Moroccan drivers were sentenced to three years, accompanied by ten years of ban from French territory. And the court sentenced another suspect considered to be the wholesaler based in Vaulx-en-Velin to seven years in prison and ordered his arrest.
A network passing through Toulouse was also dismantled in the same case. In this context, two suppliers/conveyors were sentenced to three years and a fine of 8,000 euros.
