Le Figaro Marseille
“There’s only half!”
, exclaims a police officer when asked how many kilos represent the quantities of drugs seized during the dismantling of a drug network operating in the Cité des Rosiers, in the 14th arrondissement of Marseille.
This record seizure is the culmination of long-term work, carried out by several investigators from the narcotics brigade under the authority of the Marseille prosecutor's office and started on the basis of information dating from November 2023. At the end of this investigation, seven people from an organization with drawers were arrested, and impressive quantities of drugs and cash were placed under judicial seal by the investigators.
In total, 165 kilograms of cannabis resin coming straight from Morocco in suitcases were seized by the police.
In detail:
“loaves”
of 500 grams, sometimes with the image of Diego Maradona, or smaller pieces of
“shit”
resold at 100 euros each were snatched from the traffickers, also relieved of 70,000 euros of cash and several firearms, including a Kalashnikov-type rifle with two magazines and a 9-millimeter caliber handgun.
Record seizure of narcotics in Marseille
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Among those arrested were several young men aged 20 to 25, two people in their thirties and several slightly older people playing the role of
“nanny”
.
These individuals were quickly referred by the Marseille prosecutor's office and four of them were placed in pre-trial detention pending their trial.
“This supply network supplied the city of Rosiers, but also the city of Air Bel
,” indicated the public prosecutor of Marseille, Nicolas Bessone, during a press conference.
“These people come from a pyramid structure. The person with the largest quantity of products, approximately 132 kilograms of cannabis resin, was found at the top of the organization. She provided another individual who supplied her with the supply ships for the Air Bel city and the Rosiers city. We are a bit in the modern business
,” he added, praising the work carried out by the police forces of the North Division of Marseille and by the narcotics brigade.
A new success for the Marseille narcotics brigade
The latter, made up of several judicial investigators specially recruited to dismantle drug trafficking, has once again proven its worth.
“This brigade is made up of around twenty civil servants who have been operating since November 2022 seven days a week, that is to say in a cyclical regime.
As the traffic does not stop, their work does not stop either
,” detailed Cédric Esson, interdepartmental director of the national police in Bouches-du-Rhône.
This
“shelling”
of the Cité des Rosiers deal point, carried out in cooperation with field units such as the anti-crime brigade (BAC) and the specialized field brigade (BST), was quickly followed by a “
clearance
” type operation.
»
, aiming to cleanse the city of the stigma of the trafficking that had been there for many months.
“Last Monday, when the dismantling operation was launched, we launched a clean-up operation on Les Rosiers.
For three days, we kept coming and coming back, being present on the ground 24 hours a day to hold the ground
,” continued Sarah Tournemire, divisional commissioner at the North Division of Marseille.
This intense presence led the city to return to a normal living environment after the passage of the traffickers who had seized the place.
“The city of Rosiers is the subject of particular attention on our part, since we know that it is at the heart of score-settling for the monopolization of its deal point
,” concludes Nicolas Bessone.