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Coronavirus: caregivers forced to buy masks on the black market

2020-03-30T17:18:48.241Z


Doctors, analysis laboratory… Faced with the shortage of protective equipment, some health professionals have called a vend


The scene is worthy of a thriller, but the target and his client have nothing of the thugs usually hunted by the police. Sunday March 22, in the midst of the Covid-19 epidemic, hiding in front of a building in the beautiful Parisian districts, the anti-crime squad is monitoring… an illegal mask seller. A few hours earlier, the police were informed by an anonymous call: a man was said to store hundreds of masks in a white Peugeot Expert vehicle parked outside his home. He trades in it, says this source.

At 5:15 p.m., the police noticed the arrival of a man in his sixties. A few minutes after his arrival, he emerges from a building on avenue Kléber with a box of 50 masks in his hand and climbs into his car. Two-tone beacon and siren, it is controlled by the police a few tens of meters further. And his profile, too, is surprising: he is a general practitioner based in the suburbs.

23,000 masks hidden in the van

Subjected, like all doctors, to rationing, Patrice (the first name was changed) got wind of it by a friend of a good plan to recover masks, he tells the investigators. On the phone, a man offered to sell him a few coins. He refused, and the man eventually agreed to give him a box to help.

"Masks, we only have 18 per week, it's too fair with all the risk patients we receive," explains the general practitioner, contacted by Le Parisien - Today in France. To protect ourselves, we must put on a mask when in doubt and there is not enough to last the week. Since the start of the coronavirus crisis, general practitioners have been on the front line, especially since national guidelines encourage people not to overload the 15th.

Like this doctor - a simple witness because he did not buy the masks - several health professionals would have had to deal with Stéphane (the first name has been changed) arrested by the police after his gift to Patrice. In the van of the 53-year-old suspect, 23,000 masks were found. Material inherited from nail treatments that the businessman had tried to open in Morocco, according to his statements to investigators. After the failure of this business, Stéphane would have found himself with a huge stock. Riding on the shortage, he would have bought others in China to resell in France.

"A gray market which compensates for the deficiencies of the ministry"

All without being aware of the illegality of his business, according to his statements to investigators, to whom he assured not to have been notified of the decree of March 13, prohibiting the sale and requisitioning masks for the benefit of hospitals. CE certified equipment which the government finally simplified importing on Sunday.

On March 25, the 50-year-old was indicted for "deceptive marketing practice", "refusal to respond to an administrative requisition" and "scam". Proof, according to justice, of the extent of the fraud, the discovery on his phone of conversations evoking "the acquisition or the resale of several tens of thousands of masks", according to the writings of the investigating judge in charge of the file. Despite these charges, pre-trial detention, requested by the Paris public prosecutor's office and the investigating judge, was ultimately not retained by the liberties and detention judge, who considered that the qualification of scam was "fragile" .

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"My client certainly sold medical masks," explains Samuel Habib, his lawyer. But if he did it, it is, on the one hand, only for health professionals and, on the other hand, at a price of a few tens of cents above that of the market. I note above all that if this gray market is developing, it is to make up for the shortcomings of the ministry… ”Stéphane would have, moreover, distributed a few boxes to police officers downstairs without asking for anything in return.

Sales to analytical laboratories

In fact, investigators have so far been able to identify among the buyers only members of the medical community. Judicial information was thus able to establish at this stage "the sale of masks to two medical analysis laboratories on March 20, 2020 for 23,400 euros". Establishments with a storefront but which would have called on an illegal seller for lack of being able to equip themselves with their usual suppliers. The laboratories - in charge of testing Covid-19 patients - should be heard during the instruction. Just like "doctors" mentioned by the investigating judge and who would have contacted Stéphane in the face of the shortage and the difficulties of obtaining supplies in a conventional manner.

A shortage that does not seem resolved: despite being indicted, the 50-year-old has received in recent days, according to exchanges that we have been able to consult, several new requests, which he has all refused. One of them came from a large group of analysis laboratories located in the Paris region.

Source: leparis

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