Two women and three men from the same family were arrested on April 27 by about sixty gendarmes from the research section (SR) of the Lyon gendarmerie, as well as from the departmental gendarmerie groups of the Loire and Haute-Savoie. , as part of an investigation into international drug trafficking.
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Heroin, cocaine and MDMA were sent by La Poste and via other delivery companies from France, but also from Switzerland.
Payment was made in cryptocurrency and packages were sent to the European Union, Australia and Taiwan.
Investigators began the investigation in July 2018, following the identification of a "
suspicious profile
" on the darknet, at the origin of this delivery of narcotics.
A clandestine laboratory
“
The meticulous and very technical investigations are carried out in conjunction with the American customs services and the Swiss judicial police,
” the National Gendarmerie said in a statement.
“
After having managed to escape the surveillance of investigators, the suspicious profile was found in early 2020 on an encrypted messaging.
The JIRS
[Specialized Interregional Jurisdiction]
of Lyon entrusts the continuation of the investigations to the SR
[Research Section]
of Lyon, which has a group of gendarmes specially trained to carry out complex investigations on IT and internet tools
”, specifies the press release.
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During the searches, "
an underground laboratory for the manufacture and transformation of synthetic narcotics
" is discovered, as well as 28,000 euros in cash. More than 500,000 euros in various cryptocurrencies are also seized. Investigators also discovered a large number of narcotics, "
some of which are packaged in a hundred envelopes ready to be shipped,
" the statement said. In total, the officials discovered in the famous laboratory 9.4 kg of solid MDMA, 3.5 liters of liquid MDMA, 22 kg of products necessary for the manufacture of certain products, 1.5 kg of cannabis, 625 grams of resin, 65 grams of crack and 18,400 tablets of ecstasy.
On April 30, four of the five accused were indicted, two of whom were remanded in custody. One of the five thugs was placed under judicial control, and, according to the National Gendarmerie, the fifth member of the group who was not indicted in this case will be summoned later by the examining magistrate.
