At the end of a long-term investigation, the Rhône police announced on Friday, November 20 that they had dismantled between June and November a very lucrative narcotics delivery network that was rampant throughout the Lyon metropolitan area.
Read also: In Saint-Ouen, the curfew has not put an end to drug trafficking
It is a banal road check on the public highway in the fall of 2019 which put the investigators on the trail of this "
organized, structured and pyramidal
" network which notably prospered thanks to the first confinement, announced to AFP the Rhône departmental public security directorate (DDSP).
The police then seized a business card, along with a sample, of a company promoting the delivery of narcotics, allowing a first crackdown after several months of investigation.
Eleven suspects were arrested last June, including network leaders who have strained the patience of investigators by using encrypted messaging and changing phone numbers very often.
Hundreds of thousands of euros in profits
And on November 16, other suspects were arrested, bringing the number of indictments to 14, including 9 remand in custody.
Most of the suspects are known to the trafficking services, according to the DDSP.
The network allowed more than 700 customers to order their products - herbal cannabis and sometimes cocaine - and be delivered to their homes by a team of car delivery people.
According to investigators, the traffickers were able to generate profits of several hundred thousand euros, the result of the estimated sale of nearly 80 kg of grass.
During the searches, 8 kg of herbal cannabis and 82 grams of cocaine were seized as well as 15,000 euros in cash, account books and weapons, including a double-barreled rifle.
Operating on a very modern and hierarchical business model, the network was headed by a manager who was in charge of strategy and overseeing sales and inventory management for deliverers.
Several assistants ensured the replenishment of storage areas and rented apartments, and a switchboard operator managed a telephone platform.
The deliverers, replenished every day, had to ensure a daily minimum of transactions on board cars equipped with covers behind the dashboard.
According to investigators, a particularly productive delivery man made in 90 days last year more than 2,000 deliveries for an amount of 114,000 euros.