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6 May 2008
BORDEAUX – A fleet of Dutch lorries smuggled 142 tonnes of cannabis from southern Spain through France to The Netherlands, prosecutors told a French court on Monday.
Prosecutors set out details of the drugs network at the start of a trial of 14 suspects, most of them Dutch lorry drivers, held at the court house in Bordeaux, southwest France.
They accused the defendants of having smuggled 142 tonnes of cannabis – worth a total of EUR 284 million through France between 2001 and 2005.
The smuggling ring was uncovered with the arrest in December 2004 of a 41-year-old Dutch lorry driver – one of the defendants – on the Franco-Spanish border at Biriatou.
Three tonnes of cannabis were hidden inside his lorry. It was information he gave to investigators that allowed police to break up the network, said prosecutors.
The trial is expected to last three weeks.
[AFP / Expatica]