André Bacchiolelli, one of the three alleged members of the Corsican criminal gang of “Petit Bar” who had escaped a police strike in September 2020 and had been wanted since, was arrested on Monday, a source told AFP close to the file.
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He was arrested without violence in Bastelicaccia, on the outskirts of Ajaccio, and was taken into custody at the research section of the Corsican gendarmerie, said this source. He was wanted as part of the investigation by the Specialized Interregional Jurisdiction (JIRS) of Marseille on the attempted assassination of Guy Orsoni, himself prosecuted in various cases of banditry, on September 13, 2018 in Ajaccio. In this investigation, five people had been indicted, including the alleged leader of the Petit Bar, Jacques Santoni, on October 1, 2020, for
"complicity in attempted murder in an organized gang with premeditation",
"criminal association with a view to committing a crime ”
and
“ concealment by an organized robbery ”.
On September 28, 2020, André Bacchiolelli had escaped a police crackdown, just like two other lieutenants of Jacques Santoni, Mickaël Ettori and Pascal Porri, probably benefiting from police leaks. Following this failed net, the judicial police in Corsica had been removed in favor of the gendarmerie from investigations concerning the Petit Bar, investigations which also relate to a financial aspect with accusations of money laundering. Suspected of being the author of these leaks, a policeman from Ajaccio was then indicted last April in Marseille for
"passive corruption".
Born in the early 2000s, the “Petit Bar” gang, named after a café in the Cours Napoléon in Ajaccio where its members met, has been considered by the authorities for several years as a powerful Corsican criminal group. It is suspected of drug trafficking, murder, extortion and money laundering internationally and several of its suspected members are on trial.
André Bacchiolelli is thus one of the three alleged members of the “Petit Bar” gang for which the Marseille prosecutor's office, in March, requested a trial at the assizes as part of the investigation into the assassination of President Antoine Sollacaro in 2012 in Ajaccio. The prosecution demanded his appearance before the assizes of Bouches-du-Rhône for
"criminal association for the preparation of this murder, in a state of legal recidivism"
, but also for
"attempted murder and criminal association"
in the assassination attempt on Charles Cervoni in September 2012, a case joined to the Sollacaro investigation.