They had come from Holland with 12 kg of ecstasy tablets in the trunk.
The first transported the goods, the second was the usher in another car, on the A1 motorway.
Their journey stopped at the Vémars motorway rest area on October 9, 2018 where customs officers checked the vehicle and discovered the cargo.
The opener had not noticed the presence of customs officers at the Senlis toll and had not been able to warn his accomplice.
He had returned to the Netherlands, leaving Romulo V. in the hands of customs.
Four years later, the case was judged this Friday before the criminal court of Pontoise.
The outcome of the judicial investigation made it possible to find the opener, Ali Y., from Utrecht (Netherlands).
Only this one came from the Netherlands to answer for his actions, his accomplice preferring to ignore the summons of French justice once released.
Both were sentenced to three years in prison by the court, which did not issue a warrant of committal against Ali Y., given the seniority of the case and his presence in the hearing.
The question of the prison sentence now falls under judicial cooperation with the Netherlands.
But for Romulo V., on the run, the court ordered an arrest warrant.
They will both have to pay the customs fine which amounts to 191,878 euros.
The customer and the supplier have not been identified
When he had been arrested on the A1, Romulo V. had cooperated with customs officers and given the telephone number of his opener, which made it possible to identify him and then to arrest him as part of a warrant. European stop.
The opener turned out to be also the intermediary, the one who put the “customer” located in the Paris region in contact with the supplier he knew.
Judicial information did not identify them.
“I cannot give the name of this person, he confides at the bar, about the supplier.
I fear for my safety.
I'm a little nervous…” He denies having been the organizer of the operation.
“I was forced to open the road.
I did not think at that time.
For me, it was to render a service, a favour.
»
However, the investigation showed that he found his supplier in the suburbs of Utrecht.
He admits having loaded the car.
“I was supposed to get 750 euros.
“He quotes the sum of 1,000 euros for the other driver and assures that he was only a replacement designated at the last moment.
“You enter the address of the destination in the GPS, you give a lot of information on driving, not driving too fast, paying cash at the toll, at which gas station to stop…”, specifies the president.
“Extremely harmful designer drugs”
His remuneration did not convince the prosecutor with regard to the value of the load, assessed according to customs at nearly 300,000 euros.
“These are extremely harmful synthetic drugs, which are addictive and have known adverse health consequences.
And these are facts at the top of the delinquency spectrum, ”she said, requiring three years in prison for the two defendants.
Ali V., in his thirties, who has just married and who works with people with disabilities, is bitterly sorry.
“If I had the chance to go back in time… None of this would happen.
“He is just an opener, not the supplier,” pleaded his lawyer who disputes the initial description of the investigation services which qualify him as a known offender for drug trafficking and robbery.
“He was a very small dealer when he was an economics student to pay for his cocaine consumption.
And as opener we do better: he couldn't even spot the customs.
We are not in a structured organization but in total amateurism.
She adds that the defendant, released in January 2021, has been pointing for two years as part of his judicial review in France in Villeneuve-d'Ascq,
Last year, a mule had already been arrested at the Vémars rest area on the A1 motorway, with 2 kg of ecstasy and €32,000.
