More than 28 kilos of cocaine found hidden in a car in the French Pyrenees
The vehicle was travelling on the RD66 road, and the driver has been sentenced to three years in prison and fined €270,000
French customs officers have seized 28.420 kilograms of cocaine from a vehicle travelling on the RD66 road, formerly the RN116, in the municipality of Olette, in the Pyrénées-Orientales department.
drugs were hidden in a compartment beneath the car’s floor and had an estimated illicit market value of €1.9 million.
According to France 3, the operation took place overnight between 22 and 23 September, when officers from the Bourg-Madame inland customs surveillance unit set up a checkpoint on the road linking French Cerdagne with the Roussillon plain.
A detection dog alerted officers to the drugs
Customs officers stopped a car with German number plates. The driver told them he was travelling from Spain to Germany.
His behaviour aroused the officers’ suspicions, and a drug detection dog indicated the presence of drugs at the rear of the car. A search uncovered a concealed compartment beneath the floor in the passenger seating area.
Inside, officers found around 20 packages containing more than 28 kilograms of cocaine.
Prison sentence, ban on entering France and fine
The driver was arrested and handed over to OFAST, France’s specialist anti-drug trafficking agency.
According to the same report, the case has already resulted in a three-year custodial sentence, a five-year ban on entering France and a €270,000 customs fine.
A seizure away from the main motorways
The seizure took place on a mountain road, away from the A9 motorway, one of the main transport routes between Spain and France, where customs checks are regularly carried out, particularly at the Le Boulou toll plaza.
The operation highlights the use of alternative routes to transport drugs through the Pyrenees. However, this seizure alone does not establish how frequently this route is used for drug trafficking.
There is no indication that the seized cocaine was destined for Andorra. The journey from Spain to Germany was the account the driver gave officers during the stop.