There are the bosses, the switchboard operators and the launderers.
Since Tuesday, three men and four women suspected of belonging to a pimping network appear before the Nanterre correctional court for four days.
A Chinese network which would have made work, in 2017 and 2018, exclusively Chinese women, in Ile-de-France but not only.
The apartments rented for these women to provide sexual services were also rented in the North, on the Mediterranean coast, in the center of France, in Normandy… Anywhere where those who took care of renting the accommodation for a few days or a few weeks found good plans.
With owners who are not too careful or who could be misled.
Among those who reserved accommodation, there is this 81-year-old man, the first to be questioned at the bar this Tuesday.
Crutch in hand, he walks slowly and willingly accepts the proposed chair.
Established in the south of France, he lives with a fifty-something, Chinese, met "on the Promenade des Anglais six years ago", he specifies, when asked about his relationship with this beautiful woman, also judged in this trial.
"What is the problem ?"
“What is the basis for saying that I have perceived advantages?
He begins straight away, in a learned tone that he will never let go of.
The old man, who presents himself as a professor of French and Latin, claims to have "a lot of diplomas" and seems to feel that he is out of place in the courtroom.
" What is the problem ?
He retorts a number of embarrassing questions.
Because, according to him, if his involvement in the network is "a regrettable drift", he "assumes" and asks today only to live "peacefully in legality and morality".
Read also Paris: women forced to prostitute themselves in slums in Belleville
A little earlier, he considered the presentation of the network made by the president of the tribunal as exaggerated.
“It was not a network.
It was itinerant.
One or two apartments for one or two women in financial distress. "
“When I arrived in France, it was very difficult, I did not know the language, I could not find a job, explains in turn Weifang, the old man's companion, via the interpreter.
Before, I was a prostitute, I had a boss.
The boss is the one who recruits the prostitutes, finds the lodgings for the passes, writes the announcements if necessary.
In 2017, Weifang herself became a “patron”, a pimp in legal terms.
That's why she asked her companion to dig up apartments.
False identity, false email address, the old man, of Lebanese origin, got down to the task, renting up to seven apartments during the summer of 2018, sometimes for three weeks.
And when prostitutes sent to work there by his partner complained about facing bedbugs in the premises, the old man reacted.
“It was a rental problem, it was up to me to tell the owner to reimburse,” he explains, in a half-candid, half-arrogant attitude.
500,000 euros in luxury products
The earnings of the prostitutes were halved, half for her, the other for the "boss."
Enough to pay for housing and the "switchboard operators" responsible for answering customers and setting appointments. Such a "switchboard", working in particular with the Wechat network by exchanging messages, was located in Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis ).
Then, direction Paris, the district of Belleville most often, where the “bosses” converged to give the tickets to the launderer taking care of transferring the money from this network made up of several small cells to China.
If the sums collected and laundered are not precisely evaluated, the search of the luggage of this man, during his arrest in December 2018 when he was about to fly to China, gives an idea of the gains.
Nine thousand euros in cash, Louis Vuitton and Hermès bags and pouches, Dior, Hermès, Chanel cosmetics, Longines watch.
There was nearly 35,000 euros worth of merchandise.
Because the money of the pimps was laundered in luxury products, before being sent to China.
The launderer never bought these goods himself, but his mother and sister spent some 500,000 euros on high-end goods.
Another "boss" judged this week was working from her apartment in Ivry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne).
Already fallen into a similar case, this 47-year-old woman is described as a "seasoned pimp".
She will be questioned this Wednesday, like the launderer and her mother in particular.