The Paris Criminal Court renders its judgment on Wednesday, September 28 in the trial of six former senior customs officials, suspected of having turned a blind eye to the trafficking of one of their informants to inflate the seizure figures.
According to the investigation, the high ranks would have set up business from scratch with the help of a controversial Serbian "
informant
", Zoran Petrovic, who could in return import his own containers without control at the port of Le Havre.
At the end of the trial in early June, firm prison sentences had been requested against four former senior officials of the National Directorate of Customs Intelligence (DNRED) and its armed wing, the powerful Customs Operations Directorate (DOD), in a case that has permanently shaken Customs.
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Five years in prison, three of which were suspended, against Pascal Schmidt, the former head of the DOD at the port of Le Havre, suspected of "
serious acts of corruption
" and in whose office 800,000 euros had been found.
Five years' imprisonment, four of which were suspended, had also been claimed against the head of the DOD between 2008 and 2014, Vincent Sauvalère, and four, three of which were suspended, against Erwan Guilmin, who had succeeded him in this position between 2014 and 2017. An identical sentence was requested against the former deputy of the DOD, Magalie Noël.
Record seizure by customs
The prosecution had also requested a one-year suspended prison sentence against the former big boss of the DNRED, Jean-Paul Garcia, prosecuted for "
negligence
" in this case which highlights the thorny management of informants.
The defense had denounced a “
judicial fantasy
” and a file built on an “
intellectual construction
”.
The case was triggered by a record seizure by customs of 43 tonnes of coffee in the Paris region in 2015. This historic seizure, at the time proudly hailed by Bercy, their supervisory ministry, quickly turned out to be suspicious.
The coffee in question, a poor quality robusta imitating the "
L'Or
" brand, seemed difficult to sell in France.
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Behind this seizure, the judicial investigation had detected a troubled system of exchanges of good practices between the powerful DOD and Zoran Petrovic, who would have notably imported contraband cigarettes in the load of 120 tons containing the counterfeit coffee.
Former Serbian soldier, this "
advisor
" with multiple nicknames ("
Z
", "
Alex
", "
The Great
") would also have enabled customs to make 32 seizures from 2011 to 2015, for which he was paid nearly 400,000 euros even though he was on a blacklist theoretically prohibiting him from collaborating.
