Le Figaro Bordeaux
He was caught red-handed three times between August 2023 and January. Arthur M., a 68-year-old Portuguese national, faced justice on Tuesday for "the illicit transport, possession, offer, transfer, acquisition or use of narcotics". He has already been sentenced to 10 months in prison, with a 5-year ban on frequenting the national territory, after being arrested for cocaine trafficking in August. A court decision that he has appealed.
The new offence for which he is being judged in immediate appearance this Tuesday, at the judicial court of Bordeaux, dates back to last Thursday. Arthur M. was stopped in the presence of an accomplice at the wheel of a vehicle and was arrested in possession of several bags of cocaine, hidden in the body of the car. The two men were immediately arrested and taken into custody. At the home of the second, who was hosting the almost seventy-year-old, 2.2 kilos of cocaine, 33,000 euros, weapons and ammunition were seized. Arthur M. was brought before the liberty and detention judge on Monday and has since been remanded in custody.
I'm charged a lot. I didn't know anything about the drug and ammunition
Arthur M., arrested three times for possession of cocaine
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Arrested three times
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I'm charged a lot. I didn't know anything about the drugs and the ammunition," the defendant said on the stand, adding that he had stopped dealing cocaine in September. Arthur M. thus requested the postponement of his trial in order to prepare his defence, which was granted to him by operation of law for February. And, his lawyer has pleaded for him to be released under judicial supervision.
This request is contrary to the requests of the Bordeaux prosecutor's office, which requested that the defendant be kept in pre-trial detention in view of the risk of recidivism and pressure on witnesses. A request to which the judge acceded by stressing that "the procedure has made it possible to identify several customers who designate, categorically, Arthur M. as one of the persons from whom they were still obtaining cocaine in January 2024".