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Containment: "Cannabis supply has dried up"

2020-04-05T17:03:35.248Z


Stéphanie Cherbonnier, patron of the new office to fight against drugs, evokes the effects of confinement on drug trafficking, but has


More than three tonnes at the end of February in the port of Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône), 300 kg in the same place at the start of the week, 700 kg in January in Bordeaux (Gironde), almost a tonne in January between Rungis (Val-de-Marne) and Gennevilliers (Hauts-de-Seine). Before the start of confinement, imposed because of the Covid-19 epidemic, more than 100 million euros of cocaine had been seized in France by the teams of the anti-narcotic office (Ofast). A product, and this is new, mainly intended for the French market according to the first elements of the investigators.

The general controller Stéphanie Cherbonnier, patron of this new office (Ofast replaced in January the OCRTIS, disowned after the indictment of her boss because of her troubled links with an indic) evokes the impact of confinement on the trafficking, and recent changes in the cocaine market in France.

What are the effects of confinement on drug trafficking?

STÉPHANIE CHERBONNIER. Distribution has become complicated for dealers, and consumers have difficulty obtaining supplies, as each presence on the public highway becomes suspect. Sellers therefore change their way of working and can use postal freight, Internet sales, home deliveries. We are watching these changes, because we cannot exclude the emergence of violence between criminal groups, in order to appropriate a rival's stock or recover deal points from competitors who no longer have anything to sell ...

Are the products starting to run out?

The supply, especially of cannabis, has dried up considerably. The roads of Morocco have been closed, road checks are reinforced in Spain and France. Resin has a harder time going up through conventional channels, even if road freight continues to circulate. We see an increase of almost 30% to 40% in the price per kilo and the bar now costs 15 to 20 euros. However, we must be wary, because traffickers innovate.

What about cocaine?

The price jumped by almost 30%, because the supply is disrupted by the stopping of air traffic. Sea routes remain open, so we must remain vigilant. And prepare the lifting of the containment because the traffickers will have goods to sell.

Several major seizures of cocaine intended for the national market have recently taken place in France… How to explain it?

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In Europe and France in particular, the price of cocaine is 30 or 35,000 euros per kg ( Editor's note: against around 15,000 euros in the United States ). It is an interesting market for traffickers, with a resale price per gram which is usually 70 euros in France, and around 600,000 consumers. For the past two years, the quantity of cocaine entering France has been increasing. There are two sources of supply: the port, with very inventive criminals - in Bordeaux, 700 kg were hidden in wood - and the air with mules from Guyana. In 2018, 2.4 were seized, i.e. 10 to 20% of the cocaine arriving in France. In total, it is estimated that 10% of the goods entering the territory are seized.

The other novelty of recent seizures is the purity of cocaine. What does it mean?

The cocaine arriving in France is becoming increasingly pure. It is less cut, because it transits through fewer intermediaries ... The purity of cocaine demonstrates the evolution of the market and of criminal organizations in France, now capable of operating directly with producers. But all the cocaine that arrives on our territory is not necessarily intended for France. It can be dispatched, in northern Europe for example.

So your seizures demonstrate that French criminal organizations can now import cocaine for several million euros?

It is obvious, to import such quantities of cocaine, you need professionals with a financial surface that reassures South American producers, storage capacities, skills to receive the goods, distribute them. There are therefore high-level criminal structures, but they are not necessarily Franco-French. One might think that French people are allied with other criminal groups.

Can such organizations be fought only through drug seizures?

We cannot be satisfied with it, because a seizure only hinders a criminal organization for a time, without disorganizing it. In each high-level investigation, we must also focus on the financial aspect, the money laundering structure of the network and the assets of traffickers. Ofast's mission also includes this financial aspect and we will draw on the expertise of our partners, including the Central Office for the Suppression of Serious Financial Delinquency. The stupas, it is what brings in the most money. The market is valued at 3 billion euros per year. However, only 10% of criminal assets are seized in investigations for drug trafficking (just over 70 million euros in 2019), this is not enough. The objective is to develop the methods of investigation: fight against trafficking, but also against money laundering networks.

We can therefore think that this was not the case at OCRTIS, which has also been splashed by scandals?

What presided over the creation of Ofast, it is business, of course, but above all an observation: many actors fought against narcotics but did not speak, contrary to what exists in the field of terrorism, by example. The goal is now to combine the forces of everyone, with Ofast as the leader, and to share criminal intelligence in order to target the biggest traffickers, but also to dismantle trafficking at the local level. This is also why the gendarmerie and customs are integrated into Ofast. And today, we see that we are collecting information that generates business. Even if sometimes efficiency implies discretion, the culture of secrecy cannot be erected in principle.

Regarding the cases that rocked OCRTIS, what is your policy regarding indicia and controlled deliveries?

Monitored deliveries, we continue to do, but within a very strict legal framework, validated and controlled by the magistrates since the law of March 2019 programming for justice. As for sources, to fight against narcotics, it is vital, even if it is not enough. However, control over the management of informants was reinforced in 2019: the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police (DCPJ) prohibited heads of service from managing informants. As patron of Ofast, I will not manage clues. My role is to question the positioning of our sources, their interest, then to control them.

Source: leparis

All tech articles on 2020-04-05

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