International Cannabis Ring Busted: Morocco-to-France Network Dismantled by French Gendarmes

This operation follows massive arrests between Narbonne and Perpignan in 2019. Tracking the traces of a cannabis trafficking network organized between Morocco and France, via Spain and Clermont-Ferrand, the gendarmes of the research section (SR) of Clermont had arrested several members of the network. They had also seized near the Spanish border, in the south of France, 763 kilos of cannabis herb and resin. Seven men would be involved in the transportation of the drug to Clermont.

The investigators continued their investigations. This time, they focused on the other aspect of the traffic: money laundering. They managed to arrest the other members of the network between November 17 and 20 in the Paris region, reports La Montagne. "We seized 1,350,000 € in cash and gold ingots," says Colonel Christophe Berthelin, commander of the research section of Clermont-Ferrand. "This is our biggest seizure to date. With these arrests, we have completely dismantled an international criminal network. From the importation of narcotic products from Morocco to the collection of money and its laundering," he adds.

Their modus operandi consisted in transferring the sums of money collected from the Puy-de-Dôme to the Île-de-France every month. Then the suspects used a fairly simple process: "Some are at the head of small precious metal companies," specifies the officer. "They convert the cash into gold ingots that are then sold." They would also use the more sophisticated "hawala" technique, a system that allows funds to be exchanged without physically or electronically transferring money, and therefore out of sight and control.

The investigating judge of the Jirs (3) of Lyon has indicted the seven people arrested in the money laundering aspect of this traffic for "money laundering of drug trafficking in an organized gang". Two were placed under judicial supervision while the other five, aged 30 to 51, were incarcerated in pre-trial detention.