Twelve people including five from the same family were indicted for drug trafficking, we learned this Tuesday from the gendarmerie. The clan officiated in Vaulx-en-Velin, in one of the districts classified as republican reconquest, in which he “organized the logistics, the supplies, the sale via Snapchat accounts and the laundering” of four “important” points of deals.
“A pavilion located was the hub of traffic,” said Colonel Laurent Lesaffre, commander of the research section (SR) of Lyon. “A family and their three children aged between 25 and 35 lived there and organized the network,” he adds.
Several trips to Spain and the Netherlands were also noted, probably to stock up on cannabis and cocaine, according to the gendarmes. A search carried out at the end of November by gendarmes from l’Arbresle in a related case of aggravated thefts had aroused the suspicions of investigators. “Large quantities of narcotics, cash, weapons and ammunition” had then been unearthed, putting the SR on the trail of the network.
80 kilos of drugs and 400,000 euros seized
Some 150 gendarmes belonging to several intervention units (PSIG, PSPG and GIGN) were deployed during an operation on June 28 allowing the arrests of the family and seven dealers, and leading to the closure of the deal points.
We seized 78 kilos of resin, two kilos of cocaine as well as cannabis oil – “the most expensive form of cannabis”, according to Colonel Lesaffre – for a total estimated value of 850,000 euros. “The particularity of this file is that we found cannabis in all its forms, cocaine and even a little heroin”, he notes.
The gendarmes also discovered more than 400,000 euros, mainly in cash, as well as six vehicles and several weapons.
Of the twelve people arrested, ten were remanded in custody and two under judicial supervision.