Hauts-de-Seine police officers got their hands on nearly 15 tonnes of nitrous oxide, known as "
laughing gas
", AFP learned on Monday from concordant sources.
A #beautiful affair, according to a tweet from the prefect of Hauts-de-Seine, and even a record seizure, after that of seven tonnes of nitrous oxide in Seine-et-Marne last January which was the largest seizure ever made in France, according to a police source at AFP.
Fifteen tons is also the quantity that was seized between June 2021 and March 2022 by the police in France.
Read alsoHow laughing gas became a headache for the authorities
It was following a refusal to comply by a scooter driver in Châtillon (Hauts-de-Seine) on August 7 that the police began their investigation and traced the trail of a vast traffic, indicated the Nanterre public prosecutor's office, requested by AFP.
In the scooter finally intercepted, six bottles of nitrous oxide are discovered, according to BFMTV Ile-de-France.
The driver recognizes in front of the investigators to be delivering laughing gas, sold via the social network Snapchat and locates the place where he gets supplies, in Seine-et-Marne.
In this box, in Collégien, the police discovered more than 800 nitrous oxide cylinders, or 2.2 tons, said the public prosecutor.
They noticed a few days later, "
a Dutch delivery driver who came to deliver 14 pallets of nitrous oxide cylinders representing 12 tons
".
The investigation, entrusted to the judicial police of Hauts-de-Seine, aims to "
identify the organizers of this large-scale traffic
", continued the prosecution.
Nitrous oxide is normally used in whipped cream dispensers and in medicine as a painkiller.
But it is also popular with partygoers and young people, who have diverted its use for its euphoric effect.
Its consumption presents risks such as asphyxia, loss of consciousness, burns but also, in the event of repeated use and / or in high doses, severe neurological, hematological, psychiatric and cardiac disorders, warns on its website the Interministerial mission to fight against drugs and addictive behavior.
On August 8, an investigation was opened to determine the causes of the death of a young man in Vitry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne), who allegedly inhaled nitrous oxide shortly before his death.