An 18-year-old young man went through real hell.
Discovered by the police who were dismantling a drug dealing point near Angoulême, in Charente, he had been living for two years in a cellar where he looked after cannabis and cash, as he explained to the criminal court.
This boy appeared on Monday February 19 for drug trafficking, but also for violently resisting and insulting six police officers during his arrest.
He was sentenced to twelve months of enhanced probation.
Originally from the town of Dzaoudzi on the island of Mayotte, he was sent to mainland France five years ago by his mother who dreamed of a better future for him and in particular a job, as reported by La Charente Free.
For three years, he lived in his sister's apartment in Soyaux.
The Angoulême metropolitan area is indeed home to a strong Mahorese community.
But after an argument, he found himself on the street.
“
I was in trouble
,” he explained on the stand.
Without a roof over his head, he was taken in by drug dealers who offered him to live in this cellar to keep cannabis.
100 euros per month
“
I had no choice
,” he told the court.
When they arrested him in the cellar, the police discovered nearly a kilo of cannabis resin and 2,140 euros in small denominations.
Panicked, the young man rebelled, hit a police officer in the head and officials say they had to use a taser three times to control him.
To carry out this “
nanny
” task, this young Mahorais was paid 100 euros per month.
He also received a little food and a few grams of cannabis for his personal consumption, he explained to investigators.
He also sometimes sold a little resin in Angoulême to be able to buy food.
Despite “
unworthy living conditions
”, according to prosecutor Anne Medioni, the young man was not totally disengaged.
He stopped schooling in first grade, but recently, through the local mission, he joined a second chance school, which allowed him to obtain an internship in a DIY store.
He worked there from 6 a.m. to noon since the beginning of the month, then returned to his cellar in the afternoon to watch over the cannabis which supplied a nearby deal point, in Soyaux.
Toilet “
in the river
”
It was therefore in this cellar that the boy spent a large part of his days.
Without water or electricity.
He sometimes went out to wash “
in the river
,” he told the hearing.
But also to recharge your phone in an abandoned house, we learned from a source close to the investigation.
This “
oven
” was dismantled last week with several arrests of young people from the Mahorese community.
In police custody and throughout the procedure, he did not want to give the names of the dealers who housed him in this cellar, for fear of reprisals.
“
You were exploited by these people for not much
,” the president of the court Ancelin Nouaille pointed out to him.
“
The court is convinced that you have already been replaced.
Today, by protecting these people, you are vindicating this exploitation.
» For the magistrate, the reinforced probationary reprieve from which he benefited is “
a vigilant hand
” extended to him.
The person concerned replied that he wanted to “
get by, have (his) house and work
”.
He came out free.