Record seizure of nearly 15 tonnes of laughing gas near Paris
Normally used in cooking or medicine, nitrous oxide has become illegally trafficked for its euphoric effects, despite its dangers.
In a box in the Paris region, the police discovered more than 800 nitrous oxide cylinders.
AFP
Fifteen tonnes of nitrous oxide, known as “laughing gas”, have just been seized in the Paris region, a record, French justice announced on Monday.
Normally used in the kitchen in whipped cream dispensers or in medicine as an analgesic, this gas has become the object of illegal trafficking for its euphoric effects despite the dangers it can represent for the health of consumers and its sale has been subject to restricted. The last record seizure in France was seven tons, last January, also in the Paris region, according to a police source at AFP.
Vente via Snapchat
The investigation began after the refusal to comply by a scooter driver in Hauts-de-Seine, then his arrest by the police, said the prosecution of Nanterre, the prefecture of this department west of Paris. .
In the scooter will be discovered six bottles of nitrous oxide, according to the BFMTV channel. 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 the east of the Paris region.
In a box, the police discovered more than 800 nitrous oxide cylinders, or 2.2 tons of “proto”, a judicial source said. A few days later “a Dutch delivery driver came to deliver 14 pallets of nitrous oxide cylinders representing 12 tonnes”.
“Serious health hazards”
The investigation aims to “identify the organizers of this large-scale traffic”, continued the prosecution. “Laughing gas trafficking took off in the Paris region during 2019 and has continued to flourish since, favored by the penalties much lower than those punishing drug trafficking,” he explained.
“Considering the serious health hazards that (it) represents”, the Nanterre public prosecutor’s office “chosen to pursue the trafficking of this gas as the trafficking of poisonous substances as provided for in the public health code ( 5 years of imprisonment incurred).
The consumption of “proto” 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 for the Fight against Drugs and Addictive Behaviours.
AFP
You found an error?Please let us know.