Why Dealer's Phone Chips Are Worth Gold!

They are only two centimeters long and yet have a lot of value.

The telephone chips of the traffickers which house the client files of drug call centers can be sold, rented or lent, as the liberal professions do with their offices and their precious clientele.

In short, it has become a real business.

In the glass box of the Paris Court of Appeal, Moussa D, 25, is neither a doctor nor a lawyer.

This fellow, with broad shoulders, sells cannabis and cocaine.

Originally from the city Théophile Sueur in Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis), the young man was arrested at his home in September, by investigators from the first judicial police district of Paris.

The search of his home allowed the police to get their hands on nearly 3,000 euros in cash.

They also discovered in his Ford Fiesta, 223 g of cocaine and 343 g of cannabis.

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The dealers moved to Snapchat

This repeat offender was targeted by the police at the end of July 2020. He was denounced as the head of a network of drug traffickers who delivers cannabis and cocaine to homes in Île-de-France.

During the hearings conducted by the police, this former ambience agent at the district authority minimizes his involvement and ensures that he is only the nanny, responsible for keeping the products in his car.

“I don't sell cocaine.

I was influenced by acquaintances for whom I kept this drug ", assures Moussa who admits all the same that he was selling cannabis" because he was unemployed ".

The chip returns to service after his arrest

The day after his arrest, while he was still in police custody, the police noticed that the chip in his call center, which serves 200 clients, was back in service.

The Montreuillois network made up of delivery people, people who answer the phone and others who carry out transactions continues to work without Moussa.

The officials set up surveillance and in October arrested ten other men and women with whom they discovered money, cannabis and cocaine and a list of customers.

During a search, they get their hands on a phone that contains the famous chip thanks to which it is possible to take orders from consumers but also to warn them when there is a new arrival of products because the network is working on tense flow.

“This young man explains that he bought this electronic commerce fund in Moussa for 4,000 euros, the day before his arrest,” reveals a magistrate.

But this version is disputed by the latter who during his questioning, conducted in November before the investigating judge of Bobigny, assures that he did not sell it.

"He threw his phone out the window just before the police stopped him," says his lawyer Raphaël Chiche.

The chips were called Tarzan and Luidgi

If the sale of the customer file between dealers is a novelty for the police, investigators from the Plaisir police station (Yvelines) noticed during various investigations that local traffickers could rent their chips for the day to their neighborhood relations.

Those at the Trappes police station also noted that customer files could change from hand to hand.

“In a business in Dreux (Eure-et-Loir), the chip was called Tarzan and customers placed orders using this number and were not interested in the person who comes to deliver drugs to them.

And for good reason in the traffic, they are interchangeable elements, underlines an official.

“Today, traffickers have adopted all marketing practices.

The dealers revive their customers and give them gifts to retain them, explains a specialized investigator.

They go through encrypted messaging, but all of these systems work from the chip's phone number ”.

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Not all call centers are in suburban neighborhoods.

In the middle of Paris, the “Luidgi” network, dismantled in January by investigators from the judicial police, also highlighted the importance of the telephone chip.

About 500 customers regularly contacted this platform through a number that circulated by word of mouth.

It was enough to send an SMS to Luidgi before ordering on WhatsApp messaging.

The police officers had succeeded in geolocating the mobile phone of the platform and noted that it circulated between Puteaux (Hauts-de-Seine), Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis) and Avon (Seine-et-Marne).

Behind this surname hid Remi, 50, and his daughter Léa, 25.

When the first one settled in Brazil, he had left his traffic and his client file, that is to say the chip, to his daughter who continued to manage the business from Saint-Denis before being arrested.

Uberization of traffic

According to a magistrate, confinement and the health crisis have accentuated the use of "uberization of traffic". The drug deliverers thwarted the instructions by posing as a private driver and their bosses continued to sell drugs, in greater quantities by raising the prices, to consumers. "This is the future of trafficking," notes an investigator from the judicial police. Today, with a snap of Snapchat, WhatsApp or Signal, you can get whatever drugs you want in an hour downstairs: cannabis, cocaine or synthetic drugs. It's practical and it prevents ordinary people from going to dangerous cities where they risk being robbed ”.