284 kg of cannabis, 600 feet, and more than 2 million euros in cash… This is an unusually large seizure made by the gendarmes of Rouen on December 13. In this case, eleven people were arrested in Normandy and in the Paris region. They were indicted by an investigating judge of the judicial court of Evreux, said the gendarmerie on Tuesday in a press release. A total of nine of them were remanded in custody, and the other two under judicial supervision.
It all started last May with an ordinary road check of the motorized peloton from Courbépine, in the Eure region. In a van, bikers discover a large amount of fertilizer intended for indoor cultivation of cannabis. They also seize various documents, including a bank card. The investigations carried out by the gendarmes of Eure led them to discover quite quickly, in this department and in the Sarthe, several cannabis herb production sites.
During searches, they get their hands on 284 kg of grass, over 600 feet, and a dozen guns. During the operation, five people were taken into police custody, four of whom were subsequently imprisoned.
Aces of finance
Faced with the scale of the discovery, the Evreux prosecutor’s office requests the opening of a judicial investigation entrusted to an investigating judge. A national investigation unit, bringing together investigators from the Rouen SR, the Eure departmental gendarmerie group and the Rouen interministerial research group (GIR), is created.
After months of investigations, the investigators manage to identify several people suspected of being at the head of the “money laundering” component of this drug trafficking. On December 13, the military took action and questioned eight other people, mainly domiciled in the Paris region. Some of them work in finance. They used, according to investigators, their in-depth knowledge of investment techniques to launder drug money.
The gendarmes continue their investigation and search two bank coffers. Inside, they discover more than 2 million euros in cash. A sum which was immediately seized, pending judgment. Six other people arrested during this operation were presented to the examining magistrate. They have all been indicted. Five of them are in pre-trial detention. As for the sixth, it is placed under judicial control.