Rachid Belayati, 48, nicknamed "
head of bulb
", is retried Monday and Tuesday, after twelve years on the run, by the special assize court of Lyon, for drug trafficking in an organized gang.
He was considered in the early 2000s as a major player in cannabis trafficking between Spain and the Lyon region, a reputation he disputes.
"
I am seen as a porter, an opener, if I were the boss I would not have done that, this case is not what the police want to say about me
", declared the accused, at the beginning of his report. trial.
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Alone Monday in the box, the man was sentenced in 2007 by default, to fifteen years of criminal imprisonment.
He opposed the verdict, after his arrest in Spain in March 2019. The prosecution lends him the role of main organizer of a network of twenty traffickers, already tried, to whom the investigators of the narcotics brigade of the Lyon judicial police charge nine cannabis escorts between 2002 and 2004, generating a turnover of 3.5 million euros.
950 kilos of cannabis
According to investigators, the network operated by go-fast, then refrigerated trucks, to ensure the suspected transport of cannabis.
The investigation was marked by the seizure of 950 kilos of cannabis in July 2003 in a warehouse in Corbas, near Lyon.
Investigations in Spain and Algeria have revealed the acquisition of luxury residences.
According to the investigator of the PJ, heard Monday morning, Rachid Belayati had "
a palace on four floors, estimated at three million by the Algerian authorities who seized the property
".
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Native of the popular district of Madeleine in Rive-de-Gier, in the Loire, Rachid Belayati contests the portrait of the "
principal in contact with all the suppliers, the thinking head of this network
" described by the survey director . The verdict is scheduled for Tuesday.
