The high-flight drug trafficker Sofiane Hambli, indicted in November in a narcotics case, is once again on the run, the Bobigny prosecutor's office said on Wednesday, May 26, confirming information from
L'Obs
.
To read also: "War" against drug trafficking: the police are wondering
In this new case, the French justice suspects him of having received 2.5 million euros to organize the logistics of importing four tonnes of cannabis, accusations that he denies according to his lawyer Hugues Vigier.
Arrested in November in Bordeaux, Sofiane Hambli was remanded in early December in this procedure, a placement broken in mid-March by the Court of Cassation, said Vigier.
He was then released under judicial supervision, which the Bobigny public prosecutor's office contested in view of the risk of flight.
A few days later, on March 22, "
the investigating chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal issued a committal warrant against him
" so that he could be imprisoned again, said the Bobigny prosecutor's office.
Not having presented himself to the authorities and not having been found by the police, "
he is indeed on the run,
" added this source.
Wanted by Interpol
At the request of the French authorities, Interpol has issued a red notice against the 45-year-old man nicknamed "
La Chimère
", with a criminal record charged with heavy convictions for trafficking in cannabis.
This international search notice is available on the website of the police cooperation organization.
"
I think he said to himself 'they organized everything so that I was stuck, they are going to put me back in detention, they absolutely want my skin."
So he probably decided to leave,
”said his lawyer Hugues Vigier, who said he did not know where his client was.
Read also: Avignon: reducing the murder of Eric Masson to only drug trafficking is a denial of reality
Sofiane Hambli (whose first name is sometimes spelled "
Sophiane
") is the key figure in an investigation into the practices of the former boss of the fight against drugs François Thierry, which led to the replacement of the Ocrtis by Ofast (Anti-narcotics office) in 2019. Born in Mulhouse, the trafficker is used to being on the run. He was notably arrested in 2004 in Spain after his escape the previous year from Metz prison. In 2009, it was still in Spain that he was arrested when a French court sentenced him by default to 18 years in prison.
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