Overview

• The tribunal sentenced six defendants to between six and eighteen months in prison and ordered a joint €601,636 payment to customs, with €7,900 confiscated.
• Investigators said hundreds of thousands of capsules were moved since 2022 via air couriers from Athens and postal parcels sent under false names through La Poste or DHL.
• The case sprang from the October 18, 2023 arrest of a Greek courier at Marignane airport with 11,000 pills, leading to wider seizures and April 2024 arrests.
• Authorities reported seizing 300,818 capsules during the probe, noting defendants were largely unknown to justice and living in precarious circumstances.
• Pregabalin, sold as Lyrica, is a prescription drug widely misused for its euphoric effects at about €2–€3 per pill, with tighter prescribing rules since 2021 and customs warning of a trade spanning Europe and parts of Asia.