Actively sought by several gendarmerie brigades, a large team of traffickers now finds itself behind bars.
After 96 hours of police custody, fifteen people were indicted following the dismantling of vast drug trafficking from Spain, according to information from Le
Figaro
.
Eleven of them were imprisoned, the other four were placed under judicial supervision.
Among those involved is a police officer from Vitry-sur-Seine, accused of having converted police files which were then in the possession of the traffickers.
The investigations, which began in February 2023 following the seizure of 330 kilos of cannabis resin in a suspicious vehicle in Spain, were led by the Paris research section (SR), supported by their Versailles colleagues, the Étampes research brigade as well as the Essonne interministerial group.
The same team of traffickers was in fact targeted by several Ile-de-France investigation services in parallel.
These include three brothers, already convicted several times for drug-related offences.
On Tuesday, no less than 300 gendarmes were mobilized to carry out the almost simultaneous arrest and custody of 16 people in Essonne, Val-de-Marne and Loiret.
Searches at the protagonists' homes led to the seizure of 110 kilograms of cannabis resin, 40 kilos of weed, nine vehicles and several firearms.
In total, criminal assets are estimated at more than 400,000 euros.
Also read Drug trafficking: the leader of the Yoda gang, one of the most powerful in Marseille, arrested in Morocco
“It allowed him to make ends meet”
One of them is a young peacekeeper from Vitry-sur-Seine, in Val-de-Marne, arrested within his police station.
A source close to the investigation indicates to Le
Figaro
that “
hundreds of entries in the police file
” were recorded.
He is suspected of having sold these documents which contain information on people or vehicles to a friend.
These sheets were then transmitted by an intermediary to the members of the network.
While appearing to reduce the amount required during the transactions, Loïc M. admitted the facts to investigators.
He justified his act by the lure of profit: “
He got into a trap, it allowed him to make ends meet
,” comments our source.
He only seems to have realized his error once he was taken into police custody.
“
Before his arrest, he did not ask questions about the fate of these files, or did not want to ask them
.”
He was indicted and placed under judicial supervision.
An administrative assistant stationed in Essonne was also arrested and then released without prosecution.
“She explained the elements with which she was accused
,” we are told.
The investigation carried out under the authority of Junalco (National Jurisdiction Responsible for the Fight against Organized Crime) continues.
If the drugs came from Spain, no arrests took place on the other side of the Alps, specifies our source.