Two men were sentenced respectively to eight years and five years in prison by the Narbonne criminal court. They will have to jointly pay a joint customs fine of nearly 2.5 million euros and are banned from French territory for ten years.
These two Dutch drivers were transporting a truck from Spain to the Netherlands when they were stopped by customs officers at the Sigean area, in Aude, on the A9 motorway.
To customs officers, they then explained that they were carrying surgical masks. But the latter’s anti-narcotics dog quickly made its mark. Complete unloading of the truck and weighing revealed the presence of thirty-two cartons of cannabis resin, weighing almost two tonnes.