Three supervisors of the new penitentiary center of Lutterbach, near Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin), have been indicted for drug trafficking and introduction of mobile phones and tobacco into the prison, the prosecution said Friday, November 18.
Two of these men, arrested Monday morning by the gendarmes, were placed in pre-trial detention and the third under judicial control.
A fourth was placed under the status of assisted witness, said the prosecution.
The defendants face up to 10 years in prison.
"Troubleshooting"
According to the prosecution, the traffic was very organized and had been going on for several months.
These guards, aged 24, 26, 29 and 30, went to collect drugs and mobile phones from outside and traded them in the prison.
In February, three young prison guards from Mulhouse-Lutterbach had already been indicted for acquiring, possessing, offering or selling and transporting narcotics.
They would then have admitted to consuming it and selling it to certain detainees in the context of "
troubleshooting
", but had denied engaging in organized trafficking.
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Currently, some 320 prison staff for supervision, integration and probation work at the Lutterbach prison centre, a modern prison open in autumn 2021 when the dilapidated prisons of Mulhouse and Colmar which were in the city center closed.
If the establishment was announced as having a capacity of 520 inmates, it would currently already have 705.