Twenty-nine people were sentenced Thursday, November 25 to terms ranging from two to eight years in prison by the Rennes criminal court in a cocaine trafficking case between Guyana and the metropolis from 2018 to 2020. The court did not not retained the offense of criminal association but condemned the defendants in particular for acquisition, possession, transport, offer or unauthorized sale of narcotics.
The sentences pronounced are appreciably in conformity with the requisitions of the public prosecutor's office which had requested between two and ten years of imprisonment.
Read alsoCocaine: how mules from Guyana flood mainland France in white powder
This trial, which began on November 15 before the Specialized Interregional Jurisdiction (Jirs) of Rennes, shed light on a drug industry with carriers, logisticians, resellers, network heads as well as a Surinamese supplier, currently research. Of the 29 defendants aged 23 to 56, there were five women. "
It's a little excessive, we did not take into account the particularity of Guyanese traffic, which is not neighborhood traffic, because everything is done on a voluntary basis
", declared Me Gwendoline Ténier, lawyer of a defendant who has been sentenced to five years in prison and who wishes to appeal. “
There have been discharges of a lot of offenses, such as criminal association, but whichwere not followed in the quantum of sentences pronounced
», She regretted.
Between 3 and 5 kilos transported per week
Me Kévin Descamps-Guezou, counsel to a man sentenced to five years in prison, considered that it was a "
media stunt
".
“
They didn't bring down an incredible network!
It is a sample of what there is every day and it is ridiculous compared to the dimension of cocaine trafficking between Guyana and France,
”he said.
The “
mules
”, originally from Guyana and Suriname, ingested up to 80 eggs or carried them in their underwear or shoes.
Arrived in metropolitan France, they were recovered "
by an individual, at Orly airport, in Rennes station, or in Hauts-de-France before returning the product to Ille-et-Vilaine
", had indicated in a press release from the Rennes public prosecutor, estimating the quantity transported between three and five kilos per week in a year.
The suspects were arrested in January 2020 in Rennes, Guyana and Hauts-de-France, during an operation which had mobilized some 300 gendarmes.
The defendants were also ordered Thursday to pay a total customs fine of 1.8 million euros.
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/KMEYMJKESBAZBE4MRBAM4TGHIQ.jpg)
