Le Figaro Marseille
Conclusive excavations.
Last Thursday, eighteen mobile phones, eleven chargers and six batteries were seized at the Baumettes prison in Marseille as well as at the Salon-de-Provence detention center during a vast operation carried out by the authorities.
As revealed by
La Provence
and confirmed to Le
Figaro
by the Ministry of Justice, these searches led to the seizure of numerous communications devices distributed in around fifty cells in the two prisons.
Fourteen of the eighteen phones recovered as well as numerous SIM cards were found among the thirty cells inspected at the Salon-de-Provence detention center by law enforcement and prison administration staff.
According to the Chancellery, these coordinated searches were carried out on the basis of
“prison intelligence”
which targeted prisoners suspected of pursuing
“delinquent activity”
from their cells.
“This information was good.
We know that some detainees continue their illegal activities despite their incarceration
,” welcomed the Ministry of Justice, which indicated that the seized phones would soon be used by the police.
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A drop of water in the ocean?
In total, around a hundred people were mobilized for this research, which is a continuation of the
“XXL square net”
operation and on the instructions of the Minister of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti.
Asked by
Le Figaro
about these excavations, union sources were more reticent.
“Eighteen phones seized are very few given the resources deployed.
The detainees are used to hiding things in their cells
,” underlines one of them.
“They didn't find much at Baumettes, the inmates had to throw everything away before the searches
,” adds another, who suspects the prisoners of having sensed that an operation was going to be deployed in their detention quarters.
“In any prison in France, there are always between two and three telephones per cell. They are also sold at a high price: it can go from 500 to 800 euros for small low-end cell phones which cost 20 euros in stores
,” continues this union source, confirming that these phones are used by drug traffickers. to continue their lucrative
“business”
even behind bars.