Less than six weeks after a record-breaking seizure in Pont-à-Mousson, investigators from France’s Anti-Drug Office (Ofast) have intercepted another shipment of methamphetamine in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department.
This time, 160kg of crystal meth were seized, with an estimated street value of more than €15 million. As in January, the drugs originated in Mexico, a pattern that is increasingly drawing investigators’ attention.
For this operation, conducted under the authority of the Interregional Specialised Court (JIRS) in Nancy, Ofast used a method rarely employed for this type of narcotics: a controlled delivery. The aim was to allow the shipment to move under discreet surveillance in order to trace the entire logistics chain, rather than arresting only those responsible for transport.
The operation unfolded in a small village near Lunéville, in Meurthe-et-Moselle. Acting on international intelligence cooperation, police tracked a lorry suspected of carrying the drugs after it had passed through Frankfurt.
The driver was observed unloading the cargo, which was quickly collected by two men and concealed in an isolated barn. On 26 February, as the suspects were preparing to transfer the drugs to another vehicle, investigators moved in. Two men were arrested on the spot, and the lorry driver was detained the following day.
All three were taken into custody before appearing before the JIRS in Nancy. Their profiles suggest they were merely low-level operatives, unlikely to provide insight into the upper tiers of the network.
What is particularly striking is the repetition of the same pattern: drugs produced in Mexico, routed to eastern France via logistics channels that remain poorly understood. Investigators are questioning the reasons behind this geographical focus.
They question whether Mexican cartels are seeking to open a new export route into Europe as the US market becomes saturated, or whether a French-based network in the region is attempting to introduce an extremely addictive drug that remains relatively rare near wealthy Luxembourg.
In January, Ofast had already seized 207kg of methamphetamine in Pont-à-Mousson. That shipment had arrived by air at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, disguised as three pallets sent from Mexico by a car parts company. Three men were arrested at the time, including two cousins who had come to collect the consignment.
The recurrence of such large-scale seizures within a short period suggests a troubling attempt to establish this highly addictive drug, known as methamphetamine, Ice or Crystal Meth, in the region.
