In Le Perthus, a motorcyclist was caught red-handed with the equivalent of 3,5 million euros worth of cocaine.

On May 11th, in the early afternoon, customs officers stationed at the Perthus tollbooth in the Pyrénées-Orientales region stopped an individual riding a motorcycle with Spanish license plates, heading towards France. The driver stated that he was coming from Zaragoza and going to Nice, identifying himself as Spanish and the owner of the motorcycle.

It was the presentation of a Serbian identity document that led the officers to delve deeper into their investigations. The search of the vehicle then revealed the extent of the cargo: concealed in the side top cases, the rear top case and a travel bag securely fastened to the motorcycle, the customs officers seized numerous packages of cocaine totaling 71,5 kilograms.

An unprecedented grip on a two-wheeler

The street value of the drugs, which also corresponds to the amount of the customs fine imposed, was estimated at over €3,5 million. Customs officials in Perpignan described the discovery as exceptional, emphasizing that it constitutes one of the largest cocaine seizures ever made on a motorcycle by French customs services, both in terms of volume and the method used.

The driver, tried in Perpignan, was sentenced to five years in prison. The case was made public on May 18 by the Ministry of the Economy. It comes amid increasing pressure on this border route, where cocaine seizures had already doubled in 2025 in the Pyrénées-Orientales department.