A former police officer from the Metz drug brigade was sentenced Thursday in Strasbourg to four years' imprisonment with a committal warrant for drug trafficking and corruption.
The 46-year-old man, who appeared free under judicial supervision, appeared very dejected when the decision was announced.
“He will appeal
,” his lawyer, Mehdi Adjemi, told AFP.
“I am stunned
,” added his counsel.
“After four years of scrupulously respected judicial control and perfect reintegration, his life is instantly ruined with catastrophic consequences for his professional activity”
.
Converted into construction
The police officer was indicted in 2020 for drug trafficking, corruption, misappropriation of file data, misappropriation of seals, violation of the secrecy of the investigation and instruction and disclosure of information relating to an investigation. This father of two children, married, and with a clean criminal record, had been placed under judicial supervision. He was dismissed from the police in May 2021 and had since developed a self-employed activity in the construction sector.
“He admitted the facts in full but not to the extent with which he was accused
,” said his lawyer. According to Me Adjemi, his client
“could no longer manage his sources”
and
“let himself be overwhelmed”
. The alleged facts were
“necessarily known to his hierarchy”
, affirmed the lawyer, stressing that
“the narcotics brigade was completely renewed”
after this affair.
“This is a systemic problem
,” believes Me Adjemi.
This court decision comes at a time when investigators from the Anti-Narcotics Office of the highly respected judicial police in Marseille are in the sights of the police for suspicion of corruption, a case which comes at a bad time as the government has made the fight against drugs is one of its priorities, with a series of
“XXL net square”
operations .