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Cocaine trafficking via France: seven suspected members of a Dutch network released

2020-11-30T22:11:56.579Z


While an investigation has been open for two years in Bordeaux, seven people suspected of belonging to a Dutch network of trafficking d


The highway, heavy goods vehicles and cocaine.

Lots of cocaine: precisely, more than a ton, which was to transit between southern Europe and the Netherlands, passing through France.

Today, seven suspected traffickers, drivers and escorts, who were arrested in France and Hungary, in 2018 and 2019, are all at large.

The last to be still behind bars, a 56-year-old Finnish biker, was released in mid-November from the Gradignan prison (Gironde).

His criminal record is, of course, blank in France.

But elsewhere in Europe, he has already been convicted four times, including two for drug trafficking.

His counsel, Me Tarek Koraitem, obtained his release against a deposit of 10,000 euros.

Solicited, the lawyer did not wish to make any comment on this case which is still ongoing.

This case is being investigated by a judge of the interregional jurisdiction of Bordeaux (Gironde), who brought down this important Dutch drug network via Spain and Portugal, via France.

Covid-19 slows down investigation

The investigations should be completed, but the Dutch boss of a transport company, presented as the head of the network, is still missing.

He is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence after having brought a container to his country through the port of Antwerp in Belgium, in which there was 1.1 tonnes of cocaine, hidden in the middle of a cargo of lawyers.

And the investigating judge is struggling to get him to come to Bordeaux because of the health restrictions linked to the Covid-19 pandemic.

"This is not normal," said a police officer specializing in the fight against narcotics.

Traffickers of this caliber should wait to be tried behind bars.

In the context of international trafficking, the law provides that criminals can remain in pre-trial detention for up to four years ”.

For magistrates, this state of affairs is not shocking.

“A release after two years of pre-trial detention, even for having been arrested with 500 kg of cocaine does not seem to me to be a denial of justice, explains a judge of freedoms.

Pre-trial detention is always exceptional and, if nothing changes in a case, there is no reason to leave these people in prison.

We are not here to anticipate a future sentence ”.

Three seizures made in France

It all started on January 14, 2018, around 10 p.m. on the A9 motorway at the Boulou tollbooth (Pyrénées-Orientales), in a south-north direction, just after the border between Spain and France.

That evening, customs check a Seat Leon driven by a Dutchman.

The behavior of the 38-year-old man prompts the officers to increase their vigilance and at half past midnight, they stop a Dutch 33-ton truck.

They discover that the trailer contains thirty-three pallets of toys and, above all, 539 kg of cocaine, worth 21 million euros.

The driver of the truck and the driver of the Seat were arrested and imprisoned.

Second episode, on October 1, 2018, customs officers spot two suspects in a service station in Toulouse (Haute-Garonne).

They want to control the truck they are driving.

Their papers indicate that they are from Lisbon in Portugal.

When the officers opened the truck, they noticed frost, evidence of a break in the cold chain.

The officials discovered, behind the pallets of frozen fish, fifty boxes of cocaine, or 653 kg worth nearly 20 million euros.

The driver was recruited from a WhatsApp group, aimed at members of a rally of Harley Davidson fans.

The biker had agreed to drive this truck between Spain and the Netherlands for 1500 euros.

His sidekick, also a motorcycle fan, makes no statement.

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Third episode, on October 30, 2018, at a rest area on the A9 motorway near Tavel (Gard), customs officers stop a truck coming from Spain, driven by a Dutch driver.

It carries floor mats and behind the boxes are hidden 480 kg of cannabis resin and 85 kg of weed.

An opening car systematically accompanied the convoys

The driver explains that he has already made three trips on behalf of a Dutch transporter and an interim company.

The driver adds that he made several other trips for this carrier.

An opening car, a Range Rover or a BMW, systematically accompanied the convoys.

Finally, on October 8, 2019, a 34-year-old man and a 23-year-old woman were arrested in Hungary before being indicted.

The young woman admitted to having been hired to do this work and her companion was walled in silence.

Cocaine is the second most consumed drug in the European Union with an estimated retail market of € 9.1 billion. About four million Europeans between the ages of 15 and 64 consume this white powder. Production, which has reached records for the past two years in Latin America, has stepped up traffic to European countries, under the control of Italian mafia families. Europe has also become a transit zone to the Middle East and Asia.

Source: leparis

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